Two Years
by LoveDragonsForever
Summary: Mihawk was once known as the Boy Who Lived. He fled from his world when he learned of Dumbledore's manipulations. Now Dumbledore has summoned him so that way he can kill Voldemort for him... and Zoro gets caught up in the spell. He never thought that this would happen when he asked Mihawk to train him... Rated for swearing and blood. MiZo
1. Arrival

_**I have a bad habit of not finishing stories. It is quite possible that this story will not get finished. But hey, who knows? Maybe this will be the rare one that I will actually be able to finish! Anyway, tell me what you think of this particular plot bunny!**_

_**One week after Zoro's arrival at Kuragaina Island**_

"Better," Mihawk said curtly. "Your stance is still faulty, but at least this time a breeze will not knock you over."

Zoro gave the older swordsman a glare, but said nothing. He knew that the other was right. His stance for that attack _had _been weak. He realized that Mihawk was saying something else and he refocused his attention on him.

"Do that attack again," Mihawk said.

Zoro gave him another scowl before complying. "Ittoryu Iai! Shishi Sonson!" He rapidly unsheathed and re-sheathed his sword, lunging towards Mihawk. The older swordsman blocked it with his little dagger-like sword before stepping back and nodding once.

"It will do," he said. "It could be more powerful, of course, but it will do for now." He was about to continue speaking when he suddenly stopped. He spun around, unsheathing Yoru in one easy movement. "Show yourself!" he snapped angrily. "I know you're there, you meddling old man!"

"What is it?" Zoro started to say before a weird feeling came over him. It almost felt as if he was sinking into the ground. The world whirled around him.

"Stop it!" Mihawk snapped. He took a step backwards, his eyes searching everywhere. "I don't want to go back! Leave me be!"

Zoro tried to speak again, but his mouth wouldn't obey him. He was dimly aware of falling onto the ground. He could dimly see the sunlight but it no longer seemed like it was real. The world around him faded away to blackness, despite how much he tried to keep a hold of it.

Abruptly, his sight and senses came hurtling back. He sat upright and realized that he was in a bed in what looked like a hospital. His hand automatically searched for his weapons, but it came up empty. "Where are my swords?" he said out loud.

"I suspect we will find out that answer shortly," a voice replied. Zoro glanced to his right and saw Mihawk sitting on the edge of another bed. His eyes were narrowed angrily and Zoro noticed that he was holding his little dagger in his hand once more.

The only door to the room opened and an old man with an impressively long white beard strode in. He wore flowing robes that seemed to give him a sense of majesty. His eyes twinkled benevolently from behind spectacles, but Zoro got the feeling that something was... wrong. His intuition told him that this man was not who he appeared to be.

"Ah, Harry, my boy, you're awake," he said. _Harry? Who? _Zoro wondered.

"That is no longer my name," Mihawk said. His grasp on his dagger did not falter. "Where are our swords?"

"What do you mean that is your name? Of course it is your name! And your swords are over there," he said, pointing to the far wall. Zoro turned to where he was pointing and saw that indeed, his three swords were leaning against the wall with Yoru.

Zoro crossed the room and grabbed his three. He hesitated a moment then picked up Yoru as well. The sword practically vibrated in his hand and he almost lost his grip on it multiple times. It was clearly cursed, although in a much stronger way then Sandai Kitetsu. When he got back to Mihawk, he was glad to hand the sword over.

"Thank you, Roronoa," Mihawk said, picking up the sword and placing it on his back. He turned back to the old man. "I mean what I saw. Harry Potter is dead and gone. I am Dracule Mihawk now and you will call me such. And I am not your 'boy'. You lost the right to call me that when you placed me with the Dursleys."

"Who are you?" Zoro asked, suddenly speaking up. "What is your history with Hawk-Eyes?"

"I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of this school and-" the old man began.

"Save it for someone who will believe in your magnificence," Mihawk interrupted. He turned to Zoro. "He is a manipulating old man who will do anything to ensure his own fame. He is the reason that I left this world in the first place."

"Now, Harry-" Dumbledore began.

"I told you not to call me that," Mihawk interrupted. Then he seemed to ignore the old man completely. "Roronoa, do not think that just because we are in a different place that your training will stop. And I will find a way to send you back before the two years are up."

"Where are we?" Zoro interrupted. "You mentioned that you left this place."

"Indeed I did. We are in a different world, no doubt due to the resident coot's meddling. This is the world I originally came from. I was known as Harry Potter here and was expected to save the Wizarding World due to an incident when I was a baby that I do not even remember. My parents were killed in that same incident.

"Then, Dumbledore placed me with an abusive family despite my parents' will, which said that I was not to be placed with them no matter what. He did so so that way he would have a willing puppet that he could mold. I was blind to his manipulations until my fifth year, when I finally found out what he had done when his phoenix was able to break free of the spells placed upon it and tell me. I left for your world through a ritual with the same phoenix's help."

"Wizards? There is magic in this world?" Zoro asked.

"Indeed. I am somewhat proficient with it myself. Dumbledore is extremely powerful. You should be careful around him. Most wizards need a wand to do magic, however. I believe kairoseki and water also nullifies magic, and will weaken the caster, though not as much as it would weaken devil fruit users."

"Harry, perhaps you should stop making things up?" Dumbledore interjected finally. "It wasn't _that _bad."

"Don't you dare talk to me about that!" Mihawk snapped, suddenly getting to his feet and pressing Yoru's blade into Dumbledore's neck. "The only reason that you are not dead right now is due to the fact that I have no desire to be an outlaw in this world as well! You are not the one who had to cower in a dark cupboard praying that your uncle wouldn't come and beat you more! How _dare _you suggest that I am making things up!"

"If he is lying, then where is your phoenix?" Zoro asked, somewhat calmly, although his hand was on the hilt of one of his swords. "I am certain that if you had a phoenix, then everyone would have known about it."

"Roronoa, I do not need your help," Mihawk said curtly.

"Well, you have it!" Zoro retorted. "You are my teacher if nothing else, and there is no way that I could leave you to deal with this alone. Besides, I'm here, for good or bad and I'm not going to sit around."

Mihawk nodded slightly, his golden eyes softening slightly. He was about to say something when he heard footsteps outside the door and rapidly re-sheathed Yoru. An old woman with graying hair came in. She had light blue eyes and immediately came to Zoro's side.

"You should be lying down!" she scolded. "You had this most grievous wound! You can't have completely recovered already!"

"With all due respect, I am not completely unable to judge the severity of wounds. He was fine for training and is fine now. Indeed, he has not completely recovered but there is no need to confine him to the horror of bed rest," Mihawk spoke up.

"Harry! You're all right! What happened? You're so old now! You should be lying down! You shouldn't be up and about so soon after getting summoned," the woman said briskly, grabbing Mihawk's arm and trying to lead him over to a bed.

"I am fine," the older swordsman said, refusing to let himself be moved. "I have not used my magic in years so the drain hardly affected me."

"Nonsense! You get into this bed right now!"

"Madam Pomfrey, I am not a child anymore. I know my limits and also know that it would be most beneficial for me to be up and about. Hey, Roronoa, where do you think you're going?" He shouted the last as Zoro started to walk towards the door.

"To explore this place of course," Zoro replied. "There isn't much point in just standing around after all."

"You are _not _going out into the castle unaccompanied. I have no desire to hunt you down when you get yourself lost. You can get lost in a _straight corridor. _Your sense of direction is awful and you will certainly end up in some forgotten corridor somewhere where no one can find you."

"You're as bad as the love-cook!" Zoro protested. "It's not my fault that the rest of my crew regularly gets lost!"

"For good or for bad, you are my responsibility for these two years and I am not going to let you get yourself lost."

"I don't need your care!" Zoro retorted indignantly.

"Yes you do," Mihawk said dryly. "Whatever. Just don't blame me when you end up hopelessly lost."

"I am not going to get lost!"

"You are not leaving this room until I have determined that you are ready!" Madam Pomfrey interjected. "Now come over here so I can give you a scan!"

"You're as bad as Chopper, you know that? And why aren't you making Hawk-Eyes do this too?"

"I wasn't badly injured a week ago. You were, when you still hadn't recovered from what happened on Thriller Bark. Pacifista are powerful," Mihawk said. "Now do as she says."

"Don't order me around," Zoro grumbled, but he did go over and sit on one of the beds. Madam Pomfrey pulled out a wooden stick and waved it over him before pronouncing that he would be fine as long as he didn't overexert himself.

"Told you so," Mihawk told Pomfrey.  
"So you did," Pomfrey sighed.

Zoro headed towards the door and disappeared into the belly of the castle shortly thereafter. He intended to head towards the ground, so he tried to go down but the staircases that led down kept moving so that way he was heading upwards! So he decided to go on the upward staircases instead and it seemed to work at first, except that now he had come to yet another dead end and almost seemed higher than before. "What is with this crazy castle?" he mumbled, trying to retrace his steps.

He found himself facing yet another dead end. _Huh? Where'd the corridor go? _He turned back and walked the other way, only to find himself in a completely different corridor. He scratched his head in confusion and decided to head back towards the infirmary.

"Did the infirmary move?" he said out loud after about an hour of searching and ending up some place that he thought was even higher.

"Hey did you hear something?" a young voice asked. The next moment a red-headed boy and a bushy-haired girl rounded the corridor and bumped into Zoro.

"Oh, hi there," the girl said. "Who are you?"

"I am Roronoa Zoro... Who are you two?"

"Hermione Granger," the girl said.

"Ron Weasely," the boy added. "What are you doing up near the astronomy tower?"

"I was looking for the infirmary, but I think it moved or something because I haven't been able to find it. Why, do you want to ask me for directions or something?"

Hermione promptly gave him a set of directions to get back to the infirmary and Zoro started following them. He thought he was getting closer when he came to yet another moving staircase. _Wait, she didn't say anything about moving staircases... _he shrugged and decided to go ahead and do the next thing she told him. _"Go right and the infirmary should be there." _So he got onto the staircase and waited until it moved towards the right-most passage and then set off down the corridor. It was a dead end.

"It _must _have moved!" Zoro proclaimed out loud before continuing his search.

_**Back at the infirmary**_

"I do not appreciate you dragging me back here, you know," Mihawk stated, facing Albus Dumbledore.

"I would not have done so if the danger had not been very great... Voldemort is more powerful than ever and right now the only one who has a chance against him is you!" Dumbledore replied after Madam Pomfrey left for her office.

"So defeat him yourself. Don't ask me too. I have enough problems of my own."

"The Wizarding World is going to be destroyed without your help!"

"Then let it. A world that won't help itself is useless. Besides, I don't really like the idea of aiding the Ministry. They are stupid and corrupt, although not as much as the World Government in my world."

"You don't have to think about it as aiding them. Just think about it as defeating Voldemort!"

"Tell me, why exactly should I defeat Voldemort? What exactly is he doing that I have not done?"

"He kills people," Dumbledore began.

"I have too. Many times."

"He's trying to take over for his own selfish desires!"

"Fudge is equally selfish."

"He discriminates against people based on blood purity and race!"

"The current government does the same. Besides, how much do you really know about the goals of the Dark? At least Voldemort never lied to me, unlike you!"

"He killed your parents!"

"I never knew them and it was in the course of the war in any case. I can hardly blame him for that. True, I wouldn't have gone to the Dursleys if it hadn't been for him, but I shouldn't have gone there anyway. I could have had a perfectly happy life if you'd followed my parents' will and sent me to Snape!"

"You would prefer to have been under the guardianship of Severus?"

"Yes. At least he wouldn't have starved me, beat me, and locked me in a tiny dark cupboard for days on end!"

"Harry-"

"Don't 'Harry' me. I told you, my name is Dracule Mihawk." He paused, then added, "Catch." He tossed Yoru at him.

Dumbledore reflexively reached out to grasp the hilt. As soon as his right hand contacted it, he was thrown backwards violently. Mihawk reached out and grabbed Yoru, re-sheathing her.

"Yoru agrees with me, too. She's thirsting for your blood right now. If I stay in the same room with you much longer, I may find myself complying with her wish."

Dumbledore got up shakily and stared at the swordsman. "Would you really leave us all to die?"

"This is not my war... Do something about it yourself. Voldemort fears you, doesn't he? In any case, I must get going. I have a certain swordsman to track down. Hopefully I'll be able to find him by Sandai's aura." He turned and left the room.

Dumbledore watched him go, shaking his head sadly. All of his plans had gone to waste... even this last, desperate move hadn't worked. An unwilling weapon could easily turn in your hand...

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	2. First Day

_**14 reviews for one chapter? You guys are awesome! Early update for y'all. Reviews inspire me to write more, so leave lots of them! For the people who may have been wondering about the age difference, here is your answer: Read this chapter and find out. :3**_

_**Somewhere in the depths of Hogwarts...**_

Zoro rounded another corner, only to bump into someone. "Sorry," he said absently, about to continue on his search.

"Hey are you a muggle?" a voice drawled behind him. Zoro turned around to see a blond boy of about seventeen holding himself upright with an arrogant look on his face. "You must be, to be dressed like that. What are you doing in Hogwarts?" Next to him stood two muscleheads who looked like they were just there to be intimidating. Zoro hadn't even noticed them.

"What's a muggle?" Zoro returned.

"Definitely a muggle," the blond said. "Your kind shouldn't be at Hogwarts. How did you get in?"

"You sound like a Tenryuubito," Zoro replied. "And I have no idea how I got here. I woke up and I was here. Are those two your slaves?"

"Slaves? Why would I have slaves? And what's a Tenryuubito? Is that your word for those who are above you?"

"No, it's a word for people that I don't like," Zoro retorted. "And apparently you aren't a Tenryuubito, which is good, because I hate Tenryuubito."

"You shouldn't be here," the boy remarked. He pulled out a wooden stick, much like Pomfrey had. "Your kind don't belong here." He flicked his wand and Zoro cried out as ropes suddenly wound around him, confining him and keeping him from reaching for his swords.

Zoro fell to the ground, straining against the ropes and trying to break them. _Is this magic? _He wondered briefly, before focusing his attention back on the boy. "My kind?" he growled. "What, are you an aspiring bounty hunter or something?"

"Bounty hunter?" the boy asked. "No, I merely dislike muggles. Incendio!" A jet of fire shot out of the wand and was about to strike Zoro when it abruptly disappeared.

"Roronoa, I told you you would get lost," a calm voice remarked. A moment later, the ropes around him vanished and Zoro climbed to his feet, turning to look at the form of Mihawk. He had Yoru drawn and his attention was completely on the blond.

"Still causing trouble, I see," he said.

"Potter! What are you doing here? And how did you get so old?" the blond spat.

"I believe the normal process is called aging. And the meddling old coot summoned me. If you don't want to die, Malfoy, I suggest you leave... quickly. Yoru is getting even more bloodthirsty than usual and perhaps your life would help to sate her."

"What, you think a muggle weapon is going to scare me?" the blond snapped. He flicked his wand and a dark blue jet shot out of it towards Mihawk. The Shichibukai flicked Yoru in a complicated pattern and the jet vanished before it struck him.

"No, I didn't expect that you would actually be smart for once," Mihawk said. He raised Yoru and was about to attack him when Zoro stepped forwards.

"Don't," he said simply. "He doesn't deserve to be killed."

Mihawk stared at him for a long moment before nodding once and lowering his blade. Malfoy and his cronies decided that it would be better to flee, turning and running away down the corridor.

"Do you have any idea how long it took to find you, Roronoa?" Mihawk said irritably as he started walking back towards the infirmary. Despite his hatred for the old man, he and Zoro still needed a place to sleep and he supposed he would have to negotiate that with him. Zoro had to walk faster to keep up.

"It wasn't my fault that the infirmary moved!" Zoro protested.

"It didn't move. You got lost. Face it," the older swordsman said flatly.

"It did move! And then that girl gave me false directions!"

Mihawk gave him a look, then sighed, shaking his head and continuing on. "I see that there is no point in arguing with you about this. Very well then, you are not to go out into the castle without a guide. A normal person who did not have your... disabilities would not be able to find their way here."

"I do not have disabilities!" Zoro protested.

"Believe what you wish," Mihawk said simply. About five minutes later, they arrived back at the infirmary to find that Dumbledore had left and a stern-faced woman was waiting for them.

"Professor Mcgonagall," Mihawk said, nodding to her. "my student and I will require a place to sleep while I figure out how to send us back, as I doubt the old coot will be very informative."

"Don't call me that," Zoro mumbled, but no one payed attention to him.

"Welcome back, Harry. I suppose you are too old to put back in the Gryffindor Tower... very well, you can sleep in the empty rooms in the east wing. I believe you know where they are?" the woman said.

"I believe so," the swordsman replied. "I will call for a house elf if I can't remember. And please call my Dracule Mihawk. Harry Potter is dead and gone." He turned and walked out of the room, beckoning to Zoro with his left hand.

"Stop ordering me around," Zoro muttered before following. Mcgonagall watched them going before sighing softly. She didn't know what Albus had been thinking when he summoned Harry, or Mihawk as he now wished to be called. It was obvious that Mihawk had left Hogwarts under his own volition and would not wish to return, yet Albus had still summoned him. What had happened with the ritual, though? Mihawk should only be seventeen or eighteen, but he was closer to forty. Something had clearly gone wrong.

_**Back with the two swordsmen**_

"This is your room," Mihawk said calmly, pointing to a plain door in the side of a corridor. "Mine is across the hallway, if you need anything. As I have said before, do not go out into the castle unaccompanied. I have no desire to spend another hour searching for you."

"Fine, fine," Zoro mumbled, entering his room. It was plain, with a bed, a dresser, a desk, a bookshelf, and a mirror on the far wall. "Hawk-Eyes! Where's the bathroom?" he called out.

"Down the hallway to your ri-left. Down the hallway to your left," Mihawk answered. His voice was slightly muffled, as if he had already entered his room. The older swordsman thought that if he told Zoro to go the opposite direction than it actually was, then he might actually find it. It was worth a try, at least.

Zoro shrugged and sat down next to the bed, leaning against it. He closed his eyes and was shortly asleep. Sometime later, he was awakened by knocking on his door. He yawned and called out, "What is it?"

"The old man requests that we are both present at dinner in the Great Hall. Apparently he wishes to tell the school about us at that time," Mihawk replied from outside the door.

Zoro yawned and stood up, walking over to the door. When he opened it, Mihawk turned and walked away, beckoning for Zoro to follow him. The younger swordsman had to run to catch up and the pair of them started to traverse the tangled mess of corridors that was Hogwarts.

Five minutes later, they joined the streaming student body. They got many odd looks and Zoro was sure that the students were talking about them as well. However, he had no trouble with ignoring it. He was used to it, after all.

After finally reaching the Great Hall, Mihawk strode towards the single long table against the far wall. Professor Mcgonagall, Madam Pomfrey, and Dumbledore were already there along with multiple other staff members that he did not recognize. Mihawk sat down in one of the empty seats near the end, and Zoro sat beside him after a moment.

"Tomorrow, I will attempt to teach you how to cut magic," Mihawk said softly, speaking underneath the rising chatter of the students and teachers. "It is very similar to Armament Haki and will be a useful stepping stone to learning how to use that particular skill. And while you are here, it will be the only way that you can defend yourself against wizards."

"I... see. That makes sense, I suppose. I don't want to be helpless again like I was against Malfoy." Zoro paused briefly before continuing with a question. "Can you use magic?"

"Yes, although I have not used it for many years. I can use it well enough to shield my mind against people like Dumbledore, and I could probably summon shields with it. It is not a part of my fighting style. Speaking of which, do you know how to empty your mind?"

"Yes, of course," Zoro replied. "I do it a lot during meditation, when I try to meld with the spirits of my swords."

"Good. Do whatever you can not to look any wizards in the eyes. If you have to, clear your mind when doing so. They can "read your mind" if they are accomplished enough at the art, but if you clear your mind then they will have nothing to find. It would also be good not to let them know the full extent of your abilities. Speaking of which, I would prefer it if you didn't mention mine. Also, saying that you are a pirate would be stupid, so don't do it."

"Of course," Zoro said. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Do you want my honest opinion on that?" Mihawk returned.

Zoro gave him a glare and was about to respond when Dumbledore got to his feet. Instantly, the Hall quieted. "Before dinner starts, there are two people that I need to introduce to you. One, you know well. This person is none other than Harry Potter!" He pointed to Mihawk, causing the Shichibukai to stand.

"If anyone calls me that, then I will personally make sure to slice them up and feed them to my baboons as soon as I manage to get back to my own world," he said, raking them all with an intimidating golden gaze. "My name is Dracule Mihawk now. As I have told the manipulating bastard over there multiple times, I am no longer Harry Potter. Understand?" He sat down again without waiting for a response.

Zoro smirked at the completely startled look on. Dumbledore's face. It certainly was funny, to say the least. However, it didn't last long as the old wizard quickly regained his composure before continuing.

"The other young man over there is Roronoa Zoro. You are to treat him with as much respect as you would any staff member. Now let the feast began!" Dumbledore sat down and food appeared on all of the plates.

"Luffy would love this place," Zoro remarked, absent-mindedly keeping an eye out for any flying rubber hands trying to steal his food. Some habits were hard to break, and if he forgot about protecting his food now, he'd be a sitting duck once he reunited with the rest of his crew.

"Yes, he probably would," Mihawk agreed, stabbing various vegetables with his little knife.

"You're being unusually talkative," Zoro remarked. "Throughout this day, you've talked to me more than you did in a week."

"It's not like I had much choice," Mihawk replied. "Besides, before you were healing. There was no reason to talk to you then. Incidentally, Roronoa, another reason I don't want you to go out into Hogwarts alone is that most of the Slytherins will hate your presence here and will probably attack you, despite what Dumbledore says. They don't like him very much either."

"I get it, I get it," Zoro muttered. "Must you keep repeating yourself? And do you have to be so damn formal all the time?"

"Do you mean the way I speak? It is in my nature."

"No, I mean how you keep calling me Roronoa. Call me by my first name already. We're going to be together for the next two years, and Roronoa is a bit long for day-to-day use."

"Then stop calling me Hawk-Eyes," Mihawk returned. "If you want me to call you by your first name, you should return the favor."

Zoro gave him a startled glance. "Do you mean that?" he asked cautiously. He didn't think that the older swordsman would ever let himself be called by his first name, especially not by someone who was not his equal.

"Would I say it if I did not mean it?" Mihawk returned. "Of course I mean it."

"Well, then, um, Mihawk, what is it exactly that Dumbledore is expecting you to do? You mentioned that you were supposed to save the Wizarding World... what exactly does that mean?"

"Well, there's a prophecy... supposedly I'm the only one able to defeat a Dark wizard named Voldemort who has been terrorizing the Wizarding World for some time. My mother gave up her life to defeat him when I was just a baby, but for some reason I became known as the savior, despite it being my mother's magic that protected me. Wizards are all idiots.

"Anyway, Voldemort came back in a ritual that used my blood, nullifying the magic that my mother did. Presumably, the war escalated after I left this world, and so Dumbledore got desperate and tried to summon me. Obviously, something in the ritual went wrong."

"What do you mean? You're here, aren't you?"

"Yes, but you got caught up in the spell. Also, it summoned the me from twenty years into the future. Dumbledore was probably trying to get the me from that time—when I would have only been eighteen. Or, he could have been trying to summon the me from that-"

He suddenly stopped talking and abruptly clenched his jaw. His eyes stared ahead into nothing and he made a strange growling noise deep in his throat. A lightning-shaped cut formed on his forehead and blood began to drip down his face. He turned his head away from the hall and seemed to be muttering something under his breath.

"Mihawk? Mihawk? Mihawk?!" Zoro said reaching out to to touch the older swordsman's shoulder. Suddenly, Mihawk turned to face him. His face was s[read into a crazed grin and his eyes were alight with a golden flame of malice. Zoro shuddered, he had never seen that particular look on Mihawk's face, and certainly not directed at him. Mihawk might get a bit irritated at times, but nothing like this!

Abruptly, the light died and the grin vanished. "Damn I need to practice," Mihawk said, breathing heavily. He raised one hand and wiped the blood from his forehead. The cut had mysteriously vanished.

"What happened?" Zoro asked.

"Nothing," Mihawk replied curtly. "Nothing happened." He stood abruptly and made his way out of the Hall. After a moment, Zoro stood as well and ran after him, ignoring the stares that practically everyone in the Hall gave him.

Zoro followed Mihawk into his room and closed the door behind him. "What was that?" he said firmly.

"Go away," Mihawk replied.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me," Zoro said. "You were being so open before! What changed?"

"Go away!" Mihawk retorted. His eyes suddenly gained a far-away look and he mumbled, "Shut up."

"I didn't even say anything that time!" Zoro protested.

"I said, go away!" Mihawk said, giving Zoro an icy glare.

The younger swordsman shuddered slightly at the look, but didn't give up. "How can I go away when you're being like this?! It was like you were possessed by a... demon, or something! What happened?!"

"It's none of your business," Mihawk said.

"It _is _my business when you suddenly start give me this glare that makes me want to run and hide! Now tell me what is going on!"

"Shut _up, _Yoru," Mihawk grumbled, raising one hand to his forehead. "It appears that neither of you will leave me alone if I don't tell you."

"Yes, that's right," Zoro said persistently. _Yoru? His sword can talk to him? I wish I could do that... _

"Fine, you want to know what happened? I'll tell you. Sit down, it'll be something of a long story."

_**Sorry for the cliffie, but it seemed like a good place to end it... Next chapter we learn more of Mihawk's past and Zoro attempts to cut magic**_


	3. Cutting Magic

_**Wow. I think this is the fastest I've updated in ages... you guys really do inspire me to write. Your questions and suggestions also help! Thank you all! Anyway, I don't know if I've said this before, but updates will happen when they happen, depending on my muse's attitude. If she's feeling generous (like now) then I'll update frequently. If not, then it will take a lot longer to write a new chapter. Enough of my rambling. On to the story!**_

_**Last time... **_

"_It's none of your business," Mihawk said. _

_ "It is my business when you suddenly start give me this glare that makes me want to run and hide! Now tell me what is going on!" _

_ "Shut up, Yoru," Mihawk grumbled, raising one hand to his forehead. "It appears that neither of you will leave me alone if I don't tell you." _

_ "Yes, that's right," Zoro said persistently. Yoru? His sword can talk to him? I wish I could do that... _

_ "Fine, you want to know what happened? I'll tell you. Sit down, it'll be something of a long story." _

_**Now... **_

"Where to begin?" Mihawk murmured. His eyes gained a far-away look and when he spoke again, his voice was soft and without the normal formal tone. "Well, I suppose it all started when I was a baby... when Voldemort came to my house. He killed my parents, but not before my mother was able to use some piece of ancient blood magic and protect me from him. Then Voldemort tried to kill me... the curse backfired and gave me a lightning scar. Voldemort was essentially vanquished, and I instantly became famous for my mother's magic."

"So basically your mother should be the famous one, not you?"

"Yeah... I wished that had happened. Maybe Dumbledore wouldn't have felt like he needed to place me with the worst kind of people." Mihawk refocused his golden gaze back onto Zoro. "That night a connection was created between Voldemort and I..."

Mihawk hesitated a moment, dropping his eyes to stare at the elegant carpet. He looked almost... nervous? But he didn't get nervous... that wasn't the kind of person he was. "There is a piece of Voldemort's soul inside me," he stated at last.

"Inside you?! How is that possible?" Zoro exclaimed, almost falling out of his chair.

"Magic," Mihawk replied. "In any case, once he resurrected he could use the link to give me dreams. That's why I went to the ministry in my fifth year. During that particular... adventure, Voldemort tried to possess me using the link. He succeeded at first, but I was able to throw him out of my mind before he could do any serious harm.

"Once I got back to the school Fawkes showed..." Mihawk continued.

_ Harry was sitting in the library, staring at his hands when there was a sudden burst of flame in front of him. He looked up, his eyes wide and shocked. "Fawkes?" he whispered, almost reverentially. _

_ ^I have been called that by some,^ Fawkes agreed in Harry's mind. _

_ "You can talk...? How?" Harry asked. _

_ ^I was always able to talk. The old man cursed me so that way I couldn't... that way I couldn't tell anyone about his plots. Listen closely, Harry...^_

_ Harry almost fell out of his chair when the last of the knowledge reached him. "I'm a... horcrux?" he whispered. "Voldemort is inside of me? That sounded wrong... Anyway, is there any way I can get him out of me?" _

_ ^Probably,^ Fawkes said. ^I have an idea...^ He vanished in a burst of flame and reappeared a moment later, holding a heavy book in his talons. ^I think that what you are looking for is in this book.^_

_ "Thank you," Harry said quietly. Later that night, he snuck down to the room of requirement using his invisibility cloak. There, he started reading. _

_ Two hours later, he closed the book, having finally finished the chapter he had been working on. His eyes shown with a new determination and it was like he had reconnected with the world. He now moved with a purpose. _

_ The next morning, he rushed down to the room of requirement with the book again. He snuck into the dungeons and stole the ingredients that he would need from Snape's stash. _The old bat won't notice anyway, _he thought. After getting back to the Room, he told it to become a bare cellar. _

_ He started drawing an elaborate design on the floor of the room with red chalk. When he was done it looked like a five-pointed star that a child might draw, with lines of runes instead of solid lines. He raised a bowl of the slightly pinkish mixture that he'd prepared earlier in the day and drew a circle around the star with it. _

_ Then he stepped into the center of the star, careful not to smudge any of the runes. He carried a single knife with a bejeweled hilt. He had made it earlier in the day, per the book's instructions. He raised his left arm and pressed the tip of the blade lightly to his skin. He almost cried out as the pain from the cut felt like that of the Cruciatus curse. He clenched his teeth tightly together, determined not to make a sound. He let the blood drip onto the floor, where it immediately moved towards the red chalk runes. As soon as it touched the first rune, the entire design lit up, each rune suddenly flaring to life as the blood reached them. _

_ "Cerce!" he shouted, doing his best to ignore the pain which heightened to new levels with every word he spoke. "__Defaeco mihi! Lava a malitia! Convertere anima mea in illa puro __accipitrem scriptor!"_

_ Harry screamed as black curtains of magic flared to life around him, lifting his hair in a spectral wind. His head was tilted upward and another shrill cry was torn from his throat. He wanted to fall to his knees, to writhe in pain on the ground, but the spell held him in its grip and was not letting go. _

_ Abruptly it ended. The pain vanished and Harry collapsed. The runes and blood were gone. He glanced down at his arm and saw that the cut had magically healed. He shakily asked the Room for a mirror and looked into it. He almost choked in surprise when he saw golden eyes staring back out at him. _

_ "Did it work?" he wondered out loud. "I don't _feel _any different..." he glanced back into the mirror and lifted his fringe away. There was no scar on his forehead. "Maybe it did work... perhaps the connection is closed?" _

"Unfortunately, the results were not entirely like I had anticipated..." Mihawk said. Zoro shifted slightly and waited for the older swordsman to continue. "I gained my current appearance and the ritual apparently buried the horcrux deep within me, basically sending it into hibernation. Apparently Voldemort has found a way to reactivate the link."

"Will something like what happened in the Hall happen again?" Zoro asked after a moment.

"Probably not," Mihawk said. "It only happened that time because it surprised both Yoru and I... we thought that the threat was passed." He sighed, half-closing his eyes. "You can see why I didn't want to tell you this..."

"This doesn't change how I look at you," Zoro said frankly. "You're still the same old far-too-formal-for-his-own-good extremely powerful swordsman who gave me this scar," his hand briefly rested on his chest, "and agreed to train me. That piece of Voldemort inside you is not you... besides, you yourself said that it was buried extremely deeply."

"Thank you..." Mihawk said softly. He looked almost like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders, a weight that Zoro had not even realized that he was carrying.

"Have you really been worrying about peoples' reactions to that for so long?" Zoro said, shaking his head in amazement. "You worry far too much."

_It's not other peoples' opinions that I worry about, but yours, _Mihawk wanted to say. "Perhaps I do," he said instead. He still didn't feel ready to say something like that. He suddenly got the feeling that telling Zoro about this was a really good idea and would go a long way towards them building a relationship.

_You're just a matchmaker, aren't you, Yoru? _He thought at his sword. He realized that that was probably because Yoru was so old. She had to do _something _to occupy her time.

"It is getting late," Mihawk said suddenly, standing. "I will come and get you when it is time to train. Wait for me to show up at your room. You will probably get lost if you try to walk the distance across the corridor to mine."

Zoro gave him an indignant glare and muttered mutinously, "It's not my fault if the room moves..." before standing up and moving to the doorway. He paused for a moment before leaving and then said quietly, "Thank you for telling me," before leaving the room. He didn't want to see the Shichibukai's reaction to that.

The next morning, Zoro woke to loud and persistent knocking on his door. "I'm coming, I'm coming," he mumbled as he grabbed his swords and stood up, shaking his head to clear away the remaining vestiges of sleep.

Then he walked over to the door and opened it to find Mihawk standing against the far wall, looking as immaculate as ever. "Let's go," was all the older swordsman said before walking away down the corridor.

"What time is it?" Zoro asked, having to hurry to keep up with Mihawk's longer stride.

"Five in the morning," Mihawk answered. "There will be light enough to train."

"It's summer here? The Grand Line has really messed with my seasonal sense."

"No, it's early spring. Students wouldn't be here if it was summer. The time between the worlds fluctuates anyway, making it hard to keep track of season."

The pair finally reached the Great Hall and walked outside onto the castle grounds. Zoro paused to turn and look at the castle he had just come out of. It was as big as Mihawk's mansion, and quite possibly bigger. That did explain why there were so many corridors in the place...

"Come on, Roronoa," Mihawk called out. He had paused a few yards ahead and was now waiting for Zoro.

"I thought I told you to call me Zoro," Zoro said, hastening to catch up.

"You did," Mihawk agreed. "I shall do my best to do so in the future."

"Where are we going, anyway?" Zoro asked. They were quickly approaching a dense forest that sat around the school.

"Into the Forbidden Forest," Mihawk said. "There is a clearing a little ways in that will do for training. And this way, you won't destroy anything near the castle."

"That forest looks like there are... things living in it," Zoro muttered.

"There are, but we are not going in to deeply. Besides, I do not believe that there is anything stronger than the baboons."

"Ah, yes, right. That reminds me, do those things even eat meat?"

"What?" Mihawk asked absentmindedly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"At dinner last night you said that you'd slice up anyone who called you Harry and feed them to your baboons. Do those things of yours even eat meat?"

"They eat anything," Mihawk replied. "They're omnivores." They reached the edge of the forest and Mihawk went directly in, pushing aside branches and stepping carefully amongst the undergrowth. Zoro followed, anxious to keep the swordsman in sight. He was not sure that he would be able to find his way back to the castle if he lost sight of him. It wasn't that he would get lost, no, it was just that the place was far too big. Yes, that was it.

"So they would have eaten me if I hadn't defeated them?" Zoro asked, ducking underneath a branch. He could swear that the branch had been trying to grab him, as if it was alive.

"Probably," Mihawk stated. The trees completely obscured the sky now and it was getting harder and harder to see. "Just a little bit farther."

They finally broke into a clearing. The sudden sunlight blinded Zoro for a moment and by the time that he could see again, Mihawk had moved past him and was now standing in the center of the clearing.

Zoro glanced around. The place was a huge grassy field that seemed to meet seamlessly with the encroaching trees on every side. Where as before he had felt somewhat nervous in the dark forest (although he would never admit it), now he felt almost... safe, as if there was nothing here that could threaten him.

"Give me a moment," Mihawk said, drawing his dagger. He slashed it through the air and a red streak darted through the air. It hit a tree and cut into its trunk. He slashed again, and this time when the red mark hit the trunk it left no apparent damage. Mihawk glanced down at his dagger briefly and nodded in satisfaction.

"That will work," he said out loud, before intoning cutting what appeared to be an oval out of the air. It hung in the middle of the clearing, shimmering and bending the light that passed through it, almost like water did.

"Draw your sword," Mihawk instructed. "One will do," he added, when Zoro was about to draw all three of them. The younger swordsman shrugged and held Wado Ichimonji in his right hand. "Listen very closely."

After a few minutes, Zoro said, "I can hear a... hum coming from the shield. It's different than the rest of the world, which is breathing more or less together."

"Good. Focus your attention on the edge of the shield, where it meets the air."

Another few minutes passed. "I can almost see twisting ropes of pure energy that are grounding it and making it exist," he said uncertainly.

"Good," Mihawk said again. "Those are what you want to cut. Magic, as it is used by humans, is an unnatural thing in the physical plane. The world does not like it and would destroy it if it got the chance. Those ropes are keeping the shield present and are actively fighting against the plane's influence. Watch."

Mihawk suddenly slashed his dagger in a odd pattern. To Zoro's senses, it looked as if he was rapidly cutting through the ropes. By the time he had cut through about half of them, the first one was starting to regenerate. However, that was all that was needed, as the air around him seemed to rush through the spot that had been obscured by the ropes and crush the shield underneath. It vanished a moment later.

"Do you see what I did?" Mihawk asked.

"I... think so," Zoro said.

"Try it on this one," Mihawk said, creating another air shield.

Zoro closed his eyes, focusing once more. He could almost feel the ropes binding the magic to this plane. He slashed Ichimonji through them, but they just kept reforming. He couldn't destroy them faster than they could regenerate. "Itoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson," he muttered, setting his stance and rapidly unsheathing and resheathing Ichimonji. The powerful attack ripped through the majority of the bindings and the shield vanished.

"You have the basics," Mihawk said. "Eventually you should be able to do it without naming an attack." He slashed the air once more, creating several more shields. "Call me when you need more," he instructed before walking off to another section of the clearing, where he drew Yoru and started practicing casting spells.

Zoro took a deep breath, focusing his attention outward, feeling the breath that lives in all things. He lunged forwards and started trying to destroy one of the shields with only Ichimonji and no techniques.

After about an hour had passed, he managed to cut through the ropes faster than they reformed... once. The shield vanished and he started on the next one. Once again, the bonds snapped back before he could destroy enough of them.

Zoro sighed, settling for glaring at the shield momentarily. After a moment, he shook his head and was about to resume his stance when Mihawk approached him, Yoru once again in her sheath.

"It's time to head back. I see that you managed to destroy one. Well done." Mihawk started walking away into the forest and Zoro sighed, running after him after sheathing Ichimonji.

"You're just going to leave them there?" Zoro asked. _'Well done?' That's got to be the first time Mihawk has ever said anything other than 'good' as a compliment to my abilities... _he thought.

"They would disappear naturally on their own. Besides, the denizens of this forest will appreciate the gift. Many of them eat magic."

"I see," Zoro muttered. "Why do we have to leave so quickly?"

"More time passed in that clearing than you think. We've been out of Hogwarts for about two hours."

"Two hours?!"

"That is what I just said," Mihawk replied. Zoro thought he caught a hint of amusement in the older man's voice.

"But how? I didn't even notice!" Zoro muttered under his breath. He didn't think that Mihawk had heard him, but the older swordsman responded.

"Time passes more quickly while meditating, or it seems that way. We will be going back out to the clearing after breakfast."

"Why are we even leaving the clearing for breakfast?"

"Dumbledore wants us in the Great Hall at mealtimes. With things like this, it's easier to just agree. Arguing is not worth the effort. He won't change his mind, and it's not a big deal."

The pair of swordsmen walked in silence the rest of the way to Hogwarts.

_**The Latin used in this chapter means "Cerce! Purify me! Wash the evil away! Turn my soul into that of a pure hawk's!" The last word was supposed to be "spirit's," but Mihawk misremembered it. Hence the somewhat modified appearance from the Harry we know from canon. I hope that clears up some issues!**_

_**Next chapter: Death Eater raids, dreams, more training, **_


	4. The Room of Requirement

_**It appears that my main inspiration session has passed, so updates will slow down. Thank you to all of those who have favorited/followed/reviewed this story. You guys are all awesome! If anyone knows where the name "Hurnscald" comes from without googling it, I'll answer one question of yours about the story. Enjoy!**_

Zoro and Mihawk got back to the Great Hall a bit late. Almost everyone had already entered. As usual, they ignored the stares from various students took the two empty seats at the end of the staff table.

Moments later, a stream of owls poured in through the open windows. "What are the owls for?" Zoro asked. He noticed that one, a touch screech owl, seemed to be making its way towards Mihawk.

"Wizards use them to carry messages," he replied. The screech owl landed in front of him and stuck out its leg. Mihawk quickly untied the message from its leg, and Zoro saw that it was a newspaper of some sort. The owl flew away and joined the stream of its kind that were leaving the Great Hall.

"What's that?" Zoro asked, looking over Mihawk's shoulder.

"What it looks like," the older swordsman replied. "It appears that Voldemort really is getting a move on."

_**Death Eater Raid in Hurnscald!**_

_ This is your favorite reporter, Rita Skeeter, with news of another Death Eater attack! That's right, Hurnscald was attacked last night! Thankfully, the aurors managed to arrive in time to stop the damage to this wonderful little village. _

_ Tragically, nine civilians and two aurors were injured. No Death Eaters were caught. Where will Voldemort strike next? _

The picture showed a giant skull with a snake protruding from the mouth hanging over a small village in the middle of nowhere.

"This looks like a pretty good battle plan," Zoro remarked. "Guerilla attacks, instead of all-out war."

"Yes, but they haven't attacked anything important yet... and there are almost certainly aurors stationed at every important outpost. What does that tell you?"

"He's building up his forces," Zoro replied. "He's planning a massive attack somewhere soon. And stop quizzing me."

"Indeed," Mihawk agreed. "The only question is where his target will be..."

"Is it likely that he will attack Hogwarts?" Zoro asked.

"It is possible... if he takes over Hogwarts he will be much closer to winning this war. Hogwarts' wards truly are to be feared, and even if the Ministry fell it could still be used as a base of operations. He probably wants to stop that from happening."

"That does make sense. What exactly are the wards around Hogwarts?"

"I don't know how extensive they are," Mihawk admitted. "I do know that there are multiple alarm wards and defensive wards to keep intruders out. It would take a lot of work to disable them."

"Any idea of how soon this big attack will be?"

"It will occur sometime in the next year," Mihawk stated confidently. When Zoro waited for him to elaborate, he went on. "He has had two years to build up his forces. He can not build them up much longer. Besides, the majority of the Wizarding sheep won't expect it, considering how they will probably think that his current pattern of attacks will continue."

"Could you please not go out into the Forbidden Forest again?" a calm, grandfatherly voice interrupted them. Apparently breakfast was over, as the hall was mostly empty, except for Dumbledore and the two swordsmen.

"Why not?" Zoro responded. "We are perfectly capable of defending ourselves, if that is your problem."

"No, no, it's just that I want you at the castle in case of an attack," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling madly.

"I will be able to tell if there is an attack," Mihawk broke in with a tightly controlled voice. "Not only will the wards be broken, but I will be able to sense the battles taking place."

"Sandai will act up if there is a chance to fight. I might not be able to tell, but he is. We will be fine, _Headmaster._" Zoro said. "If that is all...?"

"He has a point," Mihawk suddenly said, his eyes alight with... something. Zoro couldn't tell if it was anger, hate, mischievousness, or a combination of the three. "We will remain within the castle."

"Thank you, Harry," Dumbledore said. He turned and walked away from the Hall, confident that he had won that particular verbal battle.

"Why did you agree to that?" Zoro asked, turning on Mihawk. "With a little bit more arguing we could have gotten him to let us continue training out in the Forest!"

"Indeed, but it was not worth the effort," Mihawk said calmly. "It would have taken a _lot _more arguing. However, there is a place within this castle where we can train. It would also work better than going out into the forest. I had forgotten about it... it has been quite some time since I last visited this world, after all."

"Lead on," Zoro said with an elaborate gesture.

"I shall," Mihawk replied.

After quite some walking, Zoro estimated that they were on the tenth floor. (They were actually on the seventh.)

"How much farther is it?" Zoro muttered. This place was so confusing.

"We are over halfway there," Mihawk replied. "It is not much farther."

The next turn led them into yet another corridor. It had nothing about it that distinguished it from others, except for an awful painting. A dozen trolls in tutus were dancing according to a harried-looking woman's instructions. It made Zoro want to wince.

"It is here," Mihawk said, walking down the length of the corridor before coming back down it. Once he reached Zoro's side, he started back down the corridor again. When he had done this three times, a plain black door appeared in the side of the corridor.

"What is _that_?" Zoro wondered out loud.

"What it looks like," Mihawk said. "It is called a door, and is usually used as an entrance into a room or other similar place." He walked back over to the door and twisted the doorknob, opening it. Beyond was a large square cavern-like room with almost nothing in it.

Mihawk entered and Zoro hesitantly followed him into the room. "This looks like an underground cavern of some sort..." he said, glancing around at the rough stone walls. "How can a place like this exist on the tenth floor of Hogwarts?"

Mihawk gave him an odd look. "We are on the seventh. This is called the Room of Requirement, and it can become anything that the controller wishes. We will use this place to train."

"Seventh, eighth, what's the difference?" Zoro said indifferently.

"...I'm not going to even answer that," Mihawk said after a moment. He drew Yoru and said calmly, "You are going to attempt to cut moving spells. It is harder than stationary ones and will take quite some practice. Now that you have the idea of how to cut shields, this will probably come more easily."

"I see," Zoro muttered, drawing Ichimonji.

"Draw all three for now," Mihawk said. "While doing this successfully with just one would be preferable, it will be best to start with your most powerful style."

Zoro shrugged and drew his other two swords, placing Ichimonji in his mouth.

"Watch," Mihawk said. He slashed Yoru in Zoro's direction and a yellow jet shot out of it, zipping through the air towards Zoro. The younger swordsman acted instinctively, leaping aside.

"What was that?" he asked irritably. "At least give me some warning!"

"You will have no warning in the event of an actual battle," Mihawk said. "And I am training you for a battle. That is what you will try to cut." He flicked Yoru once more, sending another yellow jet at Zoro.

This time, Zoro focused his senses on it, and saw that the bindings holding it to the physical plane were more like fine threads than ropes. _This is going to be harder, _he thought a moment before he had to duck the yellow bolt.

Mihawk sent another at him and this time Zoro tried to cut it. However, the threads were much harder to see and while he was sure that he had slashed at least a few of them, he did not cut enough and it hit him in his left shoulder, leaving a sharp stinging sensation that quickly faded.

"Stinging hexes," Mihawk said in response to Zoro's unspoken question, sending another one at him.

This time, Zoro prepared to dodge while still trying to cut it. Once again, he wasn't fast enough, only this time he was able to move out of the way. The spell splashed harmlessly against the wall behind him. He returned his focus to Mihawk just in time for one of the hexes to catch him in the chest. He shot a glare at the older swordsman, but Mihawk simply sent another jet at him.

Zoro scowled and slashed at it moments before it would reach him. It was almost like he was trying to cut the shape out of the air as he rapidly slashed the edges. However, though he was certain that he had cut most of the delicate threads, it did not disappear and still hit him.

"Look closer," was all Mihawk said before hurling another one at him.

Zoro shifted his swords slightly in his grasp and waited for it to come within striking distance. As soon as it did, he tried attacking the body of the spell instead of the outer threads. His strike cut clean through it, in the same way that he cut cannonballs. The spell halves shuddered for a moment before coming back together. When they struck, the force of the spell was far less.

_I think I know the trick now, _Zoro thought. _I shouldn't cut the edges. It won't fall apart fast enough if I do that. It wouldn't fall apart fast enough even if I was able to cut completely around it the moment it left Yoru's tip. However, if I slash it into small enough pieces, the spell will still come back together but it will have no energy left. _

Zoro closed his eyes, feeling the almost glowing mass of energy that was coming towards him. He set his feet and slashed, his blades repeatedly cutting the spell within a matter of seconds. He saw the flailing threads trying to reconnect and being unable to. They lacked the energy that they needed in order to accomplish that.

Instead, the threads seemed to hang in midair for a moment before dissolving away, their power spent. Zoro opened his eyes with a grim smile. Mihawk simply nodded. "Not bad," the older swordsman acknowledged. "You have the basics. Now I will fight you as if I were a wizard." He flicked Yoru's tip through the air and a green-tinted spell shot at Zoro.

The younger swordsman dodged out of reflex and his glance followed it out of habit. A moment later, his legs and arms were locked together and he fell to the ground. His swords dropped out of his limp hands. His jaw no longer had any strength with which to grip Ichimonji's hilt. He uselessly tried to reach them, but his body would not obey him.

"Focus," Mihawk said, dismissing the spell. Zoro stood back up, retrieving his swords. Before he had even regained his feet, another spell, a barely visible almost translucent jet shot towards him. Zoro managed to slash it to pieces, but there was another spell right behind it that he dodged. The orange jet shot behind him and he managed to destroy the spell that followed it.

Then he was hit in the back and thrown forwards violently. "Some spells bounce," Mihawk said in an emotionless voice. Zoro gave him a glare and clambered to his feet.

"So I have to keep an eye on the spells that I have dodged, as well," he stated flatly.

"Yes. You will probably have multiple opponents in a fight, anyway," Mihawk replied, sending multicolored jets of light at Zoro.

Throughout the remainder of the session, Zoro got repeated paralyzed or thrown around by blasting curses. Occasionally other interesting effects happened, such as when he was suddenly deafened or when he was covered in dense spiderweb. That one had been interesting.

"It is a start," Mihawk said, calling a halt. He flicked Yoru, slashing apart the spiderwebs as if they had never existed. "Of course, there will also be other spells that affect the environment that you will have to watch out for. Also, it is quite possible that there will be summoning spells as well. Simple attack spells like what I was using on you will be common, but they will not be everything."

"I get it, I get it," Zoro muttered, re-sheathing his swords. "I can't know what to expect."

"Exactly," Mihawk said. He sat down on a bench that appeared out of nowhere. He was about to say something else when he suddenly froze, his expression turning wary. "What the hell...?" he murmured to himself.

"What is it?" Zoro asked,a vaguely uneasy feeling passing through him.

"Killing intent. A lot of it," Mihawk said. "It's gone now." He paused before adding gravely, "Something's happened." He froze. "There it is again. It seems to be coming from down on the grounds... it is hard to tell."

He stood up and strode to a door that suddenly materialized in the wall. Zoro frowned and followed. As they neared the more populated sections of the castle, they encountered multiple students. They all seemed to be going to one destination, although where that destination was was unclear.

Mihawk moved even faster, using his intimidating presence to push through the flood of students with ease. Zoro was hard-pressed to keep up with him. Moments later, they broke into the Great Hall. Mihawk's head swung around as if he was searching for something. Moments later he moved towards the doors leading to the outside, ignoring everything around him. He pushed them open and almost ran outside. Zoro ran after him.

The pair darted down the sloping field down towards a set of greenhouses that were on the edge of the field. He ran around the edge of one and beheld a strange sight. A young student was cowering against the greenhouse wall, visibly terrified. But that wasn't what occupied Zoro's attention, Opposite from him, a massive serpent was coiled as if to strike.

The creature was huge, as thick around as his thigh and quite long, although it was hard to tell exactly. Its scales were a virulent green. It appeared to have some kind of strange horns protruding from its head. Its mouth was open, revealing giant fangs as thick around as Santai's hilt that were oozing black venom. Bright yellow eyes instilled a deep, primal fear in Zoro, as if his ancestors had known this thing and had feared it.

"Run, fool," Mihawk told the student. The terrified boy remained where he was, his muscles paralyzed by fear. "Get him out of here." The last was directed at Zoro. He darted forwards, praying that the snake was occupied by Mihawk and grabbed the boy, turning and running as far away from it as he could get. He was nearly helpless against it with his arms full of the child.

After getting a fair distance from the greenhouses, he set down the kid and told him to get to the Great Hall. The boy nodded and turned, racing for the safety of the school.

Zoro started on his way back to the greenhouses, to assist Mihawk if he needed it. Normally he would say that the older swordsman would not need anyone's help, least of all his, but that snake was no ordinary creature, of that he was certain.

He was almost there when Mihawk emerged from the back of the structure where he had found the creature. A small snake with dark brown scales was drooped around his shoulders. Its eyes were a bright yellow and they reminded Zoro eerily of the giant one that had been behind the greenhouse.

"What happened?" Zoro called out.

"She woke up to find her children gone, and human scent nearby. She followed the trail and eventually came to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where she saw the boy. She thought he was the one who had stolen her eggs and started to chase him. He ran, but encountered the greenhouse. She was too close for him to get out another way. If I had not arrived when I did, he would be dead now."

"She?" Zoro asked, getting closer. "And why do you have a snake around your neck?"

"Yes," Mihawk replied. "The snake. She said her name is," here, he made a strange hissing sound that was halfway between a cat and a snake, with an odd undertone that made Zoro think of a river running by green moss. "I have decided to call her Sarah, as it sounds somewhat like her actual name. In any case, Sarah is currently around my neck. I have managed to calm her with a promise to look for her missing children."

"But who would take them?" Zoro asked contemplatively. "All of the teachers were in the Hall... who else?"

"I have... suspicions," Mihawk said. He turned in the direction of another small building that sat on the edge of the castle grounds. "We are going to go visit Hagrid."

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	5. Old Friends

_**To the guest who pointed out that I should make Mihawk colder to the wizards, I think I agree with that in general, but with a few of them (Like Hermione and Ron) he isn't going to be so cold because he has a shared past with them. They also tend to irritate him more easily, as shown in this chapter.**_

_**Also, Hurnscald is from a game called The Mana World. It's the name of one of the towns. Also, thank you to the guest who suggested giving Zoro some kind of magical device that would help him not get lost. Anyway, on to the chapter!**_

_$Parseltongue$_

"Normal speech"

_Thoughts_

"Wait, how can that snake be the one from back there?" Zoro asked. "She's no where near the same size... and how did you talk to her anyways?"

"She can change her size and color depending on her mood," Mihawk answered. "As to how I spoke to her, I can talk to snakes. It is simply an ability that I have."

"I see..." Zoro muttered. "Who is Hagrid? Are we going to have to fight him?" His eyes gained an almost demonic glint as he said the last. He looked almost eager to jump back into battle.

"Not physically," Mihawk replied calmly, mentally rolling his eyes at the younger swordsman's eagerness. "Hagrid has a... taste for unusual pets, though, and it may take some effort to convince him to return Sarah's children."

As he said the last, the snake stirred around his neck. _$I sssmell my hatchlingsss...$ _she hissed. _$They are near.$_

_ $It appearsss that I wasss correct,$ _Mihawk hissed back in parseltongue, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Zoro jumped at the sound of the snake language. _$Do not worry. I will get your hatchlingsss back.$_

_ $Thank you...$ _Sarah hissed softly, resettling her coils.

_$It is nothing,$ _Mihawk replied. "I told you I could speak to snakes," he remarked out loud, noticing Zoro's somewhat flabbergasted expression. _That never gets old, _he thought.

"But you were _hissing!_" Zoro protested weakly. "I didn't know you meant _that_!"

"How did you think it would work?" Mihawk asked indifferently. They had almost reached Hagrid's hut.

"I don't know..." Zoro muttered. "But I didn't expect that!" he added.

Mihawk suppressed the urge to sigh and walked up to the door. He knocked on it three times. Almost immediately, barking sounded from inside. _So he still has Fang, then? _Mihawk thought.

"Back, Inu, back!" a deep voice sounded from inside the cabin. Heavy footsteps marked the movement of Hagrid towards the door.

_Or not... What happened to Fang? _Mihawk's thoughts were cut off when Hagrid opened the door and beamed at them. The giant looked the same as ever at first glance. As Mihawk beheld him longer, he saw that he looked as if he been through a battle. Although he was obviously glad to see the swordsman once more, there was a weariness in his face that had not been there before Mihawk left this world.

"'Arry!" Hagrid said cheerfully. "And Ro'onoa, was it? Come in!" He gestured widely with his arm, ignoring Sarah. Apparently he considered it to be normal that Mihawk should have a snake around his neck.

_$Hisss ssscent is the sssame one that I found earlier,$ _Sarah hissed in Mihawk's ear. _$He isss the one who ssstole my children!$ _Her tongue flickered out angrily.

"Hello, Hagrid," Mihawk said, walking into the hut. He decided to ignore the "Harry" comment for now. "Did you find a nest of magical snakes in the forest recently?"

"Strange tha' yeh should ask tha'," Hagrid said. "I did, earlier. Poor little blighters didn' have any parents around, so I took 'em in. They'da starved if they remained outside much longer."

Sarah started changing from a peaceful brown to the poisonous green she had been when Mihawk had first encountered her. "They had a mother," Mihawk stated. "Their mother is here. I do hope they have not been harmed, or you might find yourself eaten. I doubt Sarah is very happy with you right now."

"Ah, yes, they're righ' 'ere," Hagrid said, picking up a box that had been next to the fire. It was filled up about halfway with sand and a pair of dark brown snakes were curled up inside, sleeping peacefully.

_$My hatchlingsss!$ _Sarah hissed, coiling herself and springing from Mihawk's shoulders into the box. _$You're sssafe!$ _she hissed happily.

_$Mother? What'sss wrong? Where are we? What happened?$ _one of the snakes asked.

_$Don't worry, you're sssafe now,$ _Sarah responded, wrapping herself tightly around her young ones. She raised her head out of the box and said to Mihawk, _$Thank you... I don't know what I would have done without you... Isss there any way that I can repay you?$_

_ $Don't worry about it,$ _Mihawk replied. _$It isss fine.$ _

Sarah grinned in her snake-like way and suddenly grew much bigger. The two smaller snakes that had been in the box climbed on top of her, and Sarah set off towards the door and the Forbidden Forest.

"Is that a three-headed dog?" Zoro asked suddenly. "It isn't a zombie, is it?" He started to rummage around in his pockets, as if he was searching for something.

"A zombie? Inu?" Hagrid asked. There was a clatter of claws on wood and a large three-headed dog moved forwards into Mihawk's line of sight. It had dark, coarse brown fur and all three tongues were hanging out. Each head had a slightly different shape. It reminded Mihawk of Fluffy, only smaller.

"Naw, Inu's just a cerberus," Hagrid continued. "Not a zombie. Where'd yeh get tha' idea?"

"It looks too much like that dog on Thriller Bark," Zoro muttered, pulling out a small bag from a pocket somewhere. "Forgive me if I keep this out."

"What is that?" Mihawk asked somewhat curiously.

"Salt," Zoro replied.

"To negate Moria's abilities," Mihawk said, nodding. "The zombies in this world won't be affected by that, though. Just slice them up. That works on about everything."

"Did you just make a _joke_?!" Zoro gasped in mock surprise. "I think you're turning into a human being..."

"I was never anything other than human," Mihawk pointed out, barely managing to keep his face smooth and his tone even. That was so hard sometimes, when Zoro was around.

"What about the eyes?" Zoro pointed out.

"I already told you; that only happened because of a ritual gone wrong."

"It really is nice ta see yeh after so long," Hagrid said cheerfully. "It's kinda hard ta believe that it's bin two whole years..."

"It has been over twenty for me," Mihawk pointed out. "In any case, I must get going or Ron and Hermione will show up. They've already started heading this way. It would be nice if you didn't tell them that I was here."

"Yeh don't wanna see 'em? Well, I guess that's yer own business. Bye, 'Arry! It was nice seein' yeh."

"Goodbye, Hagrid," Mihawk said, nodding to the half-giant before walking out of the cabin and starting a round-about path back to the castle.

"Ron and Hermione? Did you know them before you left this world?" Zoro asked.

"Yes," Mihawk stated shortly, not feeling like elaborating on the matter. Their reunion would be... awkward, to say the least, and it was something that he wanted to put off for as long as possible.

They walked the rest of the way back to the castle in silence. Mihawk headed back up to where his room was; he wanted to get started on a project idea. He could sense Zoro's irritation building up behind him and figured it was because the green-haired man wanted to keep pushing himself. It was the middle of the day, after all, not anywhere near nighttime.

"You have not completely recovered from your wounds," Mihawk said out loud. "You can not push yourself as much as you usually do until you are completely healed. To do so will only cause you to re-injure yourself." He paused, then added, "And you shouldn't do any training on your own, either. I am already giving you as much as your body can handle."

"And how did _you _get so knowledgeable on the subject?" Zoro muttered.

"Experience," Mihawk replied dryly. "It's not exactly easy to become the greatest swordsman in the world."

"Tch."

Mihawk almost chuckled at the green-haired swordsman's response. It was getting harder and harder to act completely emotionless around him. He was going to slip sooner or later. He suppressed a sigh, and was glad when they finally reached the corridor where the pair of rooms were.

"Now rest," Mihawk said firmly, pointing to Zoro's door. The younger swordsman sighed and entered his room, hopefully to rest like Mihawk wanted him to.

Mihawk walked into his own room and sat back down at the desk. Several items were laying on it: a leather wristband, a white crystal, and an open book. He picked up the book and began reading the section again. He had already prepped the gem and the band, now he just had to combine them.

He carefully placed the gem next to the wristband, then stepped backwards, unsheathing Yoru in one easy motion. He closed his eyes in concentration and a moment later Yoru's tip was moving in a complicated series of motions. To an observer, it would look almost as if the black sword's blade was passing _through _both the wristband and the gem.

After a few minutes, metal started to emerge from the leather and spiral towards the gem. Moments later, the white crystal was completely ensnared in the metal. Mihawk set down Yoru, and opened his eyes, examining the fine magic threads that were woven throughout the object.

"Now to see if it works," he muttered, picking it up and putting it on. "The closest bathroom," he said out loud. The gem shattered with a loud bang, almost like a gunshot. Tiny crystalline fragments shot everywhere. "Well, that didn't work," Mihawk said, taking off the wristband.

He had just picked up the book and started rereading the ritual when the door swung open and Zoro poked his head in. "You alright in here?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Mihawk replied absently. "Ah, I didn't soak the rock for long enough." He grabbed a rock from the top of a shelf and walked over to a nearby cauldron that still held a slowly bubbling noxious green mixture. After dropping the rock into the mixture, he cast a quick eye at a clock on the far wall. _An hour and a half, _he thought.

"What are you doing?" Zoro asked.

"What it looks like," Mihawk replied out of habit. "Go away," he added, in case his desire to be alone at the moment wasn't clear.

"What it looks like? It looks like you're exploding things..." Mihawk heard a sigh from behind him but didn't turn around. He guessed that Zoro was leaning on the door frame. "Fine, fine, whatever. Just keep it down, would you? You're disturbing my sleep." With that, he left the room and closed the door.

Mihawk snorted at what Zoro said and raised Yoru again, casting a quick silencing ward around the room. When that was finished, he sighed, wondering what to do for the next hour and a half. He scowled as pain flared up in his forehead again. He sighed and reached into one of his hidden pockets, pulling out a lump of kairoseki.

He raised it to his forehead and sighed in relief as the pain vanished. He did so love kairoseki's magic-negating abilities. It also made him glad that he hadn't used magic for long enough that it didn't affect him. What he did with Yoru didn't come from within him, it came from both the sword and the surroundings. In a way, he was just manipulating the world around him, without using any power from within himself.

Mihawk got the sudden idea that he was over-thinking this and chuckled softly. "Perhaps I am," he acknowledged. He groaned as he sensed two presences moving towards his room. _Not now... _he thought irritably. Keeping the kairoseki pressed against his forehead, he drew Yoru and cast a few locking charms on his door before walking over to his bed, placing Yoru by the side, and lying down.

A few moments later, he felt the two presences pause outside his door. He could hear them bickering; the silencing ward did not keep sound out, only in.

"Just knock. Honestly, Ron! Is it that hard to think of?" A young woman's voice. Hermione's voice.

"But you know, he's old!" That was Ron, for sure. "What if he doesn't want to be around us anymore? Maybe he _has _been avoiding us!"

Mihawk sighed and stood up, momentarily removing the kairoseki lump from his forehead. The pain did not return; it seemed that Voldemort had given up, for the moment at least. He replaced the kairoseki in his pocket and walked over to the door, wondering briefly if the two teens would lose their nerve.

"Even if he has, it's not like he'll bite our heads off or something! Think things through, would you? He's still the same person, even if he _is _a bit older."

They wouldn't, then. Mihawk pulled open the door and gave them each a glare from his golden eyes. "How long are you going to stand there, arguing about whether or not to knock?" he asked irritably. "Just come in already."

"Sorry to intrude like this," Hermione began uncertainly, but Mihawk cut in.

"There is no need to be sorry," he said. "I _have _been avoiding you, so I suppose this would happen eventually." He winced slightly as the pain flared back up in his forehead. Great. He pulled the kairoseki back out of his pocket and held it to his forehead again, sighing slightly as the pain vanished at the cool touch of the stone.

"Why are you holding a stone to your forehead?" Ron asked.

"It stops the pain," Mihawk replied, shooting a glance at the clock. _Still an hour left, _he thought.

"Your scar? But wasn't the ritual that you did supposed to keep him from accessing you through it?" Hermione asked worriedly. "Maybe it went wrong? There could be other affects..."

"You've already seen them," Mihawk pointed out dryly, gesturing to his eyes. "Besides, Yoru would have told me if there were any ill side affects."

"Yoru? Who's that?" Ron asked.

"My sword, of course," Mihawk replied. "She and I can communicate, after a fashion..." A moment later, he thought that it worked perfectly fine, even if it was a bit weird. It wasn't like Yoru needed words to communicate, after all.

_I suppose that's true, _Mihawk thought.

"Why have you been avoiding us?" Hermione asked bluntly. "And I would prefer it if you didn't blow me off, either."

"Mostly because I don't want to deal with you right now," Mihawk replied somewhat honestly. "The green-haired idiot in the room over there takes enough brainpower as it is. Then, of course, there's Dumbles and the war."

"Speaking of the war, what are you going to do about it, mate?" Ron asked. "Are you going to go out on the front lines or find You-Know-Who's hideout or what?"

"Say his name already," Mihawk replied irritably. "It's just a name, it's not like he ate the Name-Name Fruit. As to how I will fight him... I haven't decided. There are some other... issues that I'd need to deal with first in any case."

"Issues? Like what?" Hermione asked.

_Can you stop being nosy for one second? _Mihawk thought irritably. "Think about it," he replied. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out."

"Do you mean his Death Eaters? Or the Order? Or Dumbledore?"

"Close, but not very," Mihawk replied dryly. "If that was all that mattered, I'd go track him down by some spell, and then kill him. Preferably in a place where there aren't a lot of civilians around, but hey, if they get in the way, not my problem."

"You're getting irritated at us, aren't you," Hermione remarked.

"Why, how did you guess?" Mihawk responded. He suddenly spun, his golden eyes boring into Ron. _"Don't!" _he hissed, a moment too late. Ron reached out to pick up Yoru and was blasted backwards violently into the wall.

"Was that really necessary?" Mihawk muttered, walking over to Yoru and picking her up one-handed. "She doesn't like people other than her Wielder touching her," he said, responding to their unasked question.

"Ron! Are you alright?" Hermione asked, half-running over to the fallen Weasely.

"He'll be fine," Mihawk said in a bored tone. "It's not like Yoru hates him, or anything."

"Your best friend just got blasted away by your _sword!_ The least you could do is show a little worry!" Hermione scolded him.

"He is not my 'best friend' and has not been so for twenty years," Mihawk said suddenly, his eyes growing cold. "You are from my past. I have a different life now. The closest thing I have to a friend is Shanks, and that particular red-haired idiot isn't in the world."

Hermione gave him a glare while helping Ron to his feet. "You really have changed. _Mihawk_," she spat before striding out of the room, half-carrying Ron.

_That probably could have gone better, _Mihawk thought. _Oh well. _He glanced up at the clock and sighed. _Still another 45 minutes left... _

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	6. That Red-Haired Idiot

_**Thanks to Dannichigo and the guest who suggested the fight scene for the ideas! Also, SlytherinChan, as the 100th follower, send me a PM with what you want to know about something in the story. It could be just something you're wondering about. Whatever. Also, I will be making names/ OCs for several members of Shanks' crew—there just aren't enough names/people mentioned in canon for me to work with as an entire crew. So, I hope I don't blunder too badly. XD **_

_**Also I'm gonna be without internet for about a week, so I don't expect an update within the next week or so. Hopefully I'll have something for you guys once I get back though. Enjoy the chapter!**_

_**Somewhere in the Grand Line**_

The majority of the Red-Haired pirates lay passed on the deck. A few were semi-conscious, although not many. Shanks blearily opened his eyes and stared up at the sky, though he made no attempt to move. He just didn't feel like he had the energy. _Ow, my head, _he thought. Too much drinking always did that.

Shanks sighed. He guessed that he should probably get up and wake up his nakama as well. About the only one who wasn't passed out was Benn, and that was only because the other man didn't drink. At least they were approaching another island. He started to ease himself carefully into a sitting position, wincing as the movement cause his temple to throb once more.

He blinked in slight confusion as the world seemed to whirl around him more than it usually did after he finished drinking. _Eh? What? _He thought. He attempted to stand up, but almost immediately fell back down.

"What the hell?" someone shouted from somewhere else on the boat. Apparently he wasn't the only one up at this time.

Shanks tried to turn around, ask what was wrong, but his muscles wouldn't obey him. _What the...? _was the only thing that he could think. A moment later, he lost consciousness once more.

_**An unknown amount of time later**_

Shanks blinked awake once more. This time he was lying on the floor of a forest. There were trees as far as he could see and as he looked around he happened to glance up... and let out a shriek as he saw a giant spider looming over him.

Shanks acted on instinct, rapidly drawing his saber and killing the spider. Moments later, chittering sounds were heard and multiple pairs of red eyes gleamed from between tree trunks. _Am I on some kind of jungle island? Maybe this was the next island... but then how did I get here? And where are the rest of my nakama?_

There was a louder chittering sound and then web shot out from the underbrush. Shanks, anticipating the attack a moment before it happened, easily dodged before taking off towards his left. The first thing he wanted to do was get away from the spiders. The creatures seemed to flee from him at first, creating a passageway for him.

Moments later, however, there was rustling in the undergrowth and the spiders started to chase him. He turned around and sent out a quick burst of Haki that was supposed to knock them out. However, it only slowed them momentarily. _What the hell are these things? _Shanks thought, sending out a stronger burst. This time, there were multiple thumps as spiders dropped from the trees above. One landed right in front of Shanks and the pirate shudder. It was obvious that the creature had been planning to attack him from above.

Shanks set off at a more leisurely pace, now that the spiders had been defeated. "GUYS?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "ANYONE?!"

There was no response, his yell merely echoing off the trees.

_**In another part of the forest...**_

"Eh? Where are we?" Lucky Roo mumbled, getting up and rubbing his head. "Where'd my meat go? Ah, well."

"So you're awake," Benn remarked from nearby. Other crew members were starting to get up as well. "As to where we are... who knows? As the only sober one, I can tell you that we did not land at the island."

"Where are we?" Yasopp muttered, pulling himself to his feet. "What happened?"

"A more importan' question: Where's Shanks?" a newer crew mate, Aldis, asked.

"He's going to get in so much trouble," Benn muttered. "Well, we had better look for him, then, eh?"

"Split up, then?" Yasopp asked.

"Yeah, I guess so... Meet back up here in an hour, then. You hear that, everyone?!" Benn cried.

"YEAH!" The pirates' cry echoed in the dark forest and they quickly split up into six different search parties, heading in different directions.

_**Earlier that day**_

Mihawk woke up to a knocking on his door. "What is it, Zoro?" he called out, slightly irritated.

"Dumbledore wants to see you in his office!" someone yelled through the door. There was a pop, so Mihawk guessed that it was a house elf.

"Fine, fine," Mihawk muttered. He quickly got dressed, placing Yoru on his back as usual, before walking over to the desk where he had been working the night before. The wristband with the gem set into it was waiting over there and he grabbed it before heading out the door. A moment later, he thought better of it and went back to his room.

He summoned some parchment and a quill, and wrote quickly. _'I will be back shortly. Don't leave your room or go wandering in the castle.' _After a moment, he signed it with a stylized 'M' at the bottom. Then he went out the door, sticking the note to the outside of his door with a quick charm.

Ten minutes later, Mihawk was having a staring contest with the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office. _Oh, screw this, _he thought, drawing Yoru. 10 seconds later, the gargoyle had sprung aside, the enchantments that held it in place broken.

Mihawk sheathed Yoru and walked up the paradoxically spiraling stairs to Dumbledore's office. He took a moment before entering to steel himself, wiping all emotions from his face. He was determined not to let the old man see how much he was able to get under his skin.

The swordsman opened the door, stepping inside Dumbledore's office. The first thing he noticed was that there was a man standing against the far wall. He had a sword on his belt and moved with the air of a swordsman... a novice swordsman. _I think I know what this meeting is about, _Mihawk thought, hoping that he had remembered to stick his book into one of his hidden pockets.

"Ah, Harry," Dumbledore said, appearing to be genuinely glad to see him. His eyes twinkled benignly and, not for the first time, Mihawk thought how incredibly creepy that was.

"Don't call me that," he responded out of habit.

"Yes, yes," Dumbledore said, waving a hand. "In any case, I really have no ideas of your abilities, my boy. I need to know more about them in order to know how to best work with you."

"I am not your boy. You want me to fight him?" Mihawk asked, jerking his head to indicate the other man.

"Indeed. He is one of the few aurors I could find who uses both a sword and a wand. He will test your abilities in both fields."

"I see. Can we just get this over with?" Mihawk said irritably. This was going to be one boring fight.

"Of course. Come, let's head down to the castle grounds."

"You go first," Mihawk said flatly, refusing to have his back turned to the older wizard. Dumbledore merely continued twinkling benignly and descended the stairs before the swordsman.

Half an hour later, they reached the doors of the Great Hall, and walked out onto the sloping path.

"This will do," the auror said, the first words he had spoken since being introduced.

"One moment," Mihawk said, starting to search his pockets. _Kairoseki... a dagger... what is this? Oh, antivenin... why do I have a pencil in my pocket? And is that... salt? Oh I was supposed to meet with Moriah some time ago... oh, who cares. Where is it?! Oh, here it is. _Mihawk pulled out a thin book and opened it to a carefully bookmarked page.

"There," he said. "Now I'm ready."

"Quit screwing around!" the auror snapped.

"I'm perfectly serious," Mihawk responded, starting to read the first page. It was another book about enchanting objects.

The auror drew his sword and rushed at Mihawk. The older swordsman unsheathed his cross-dagger and almost absentmindedly blocked the auror's attack. The other man shouted some spell or another and Mihawk cut through it long before it could take effect. He thought it had something to do with the earth.

Mihawk moved forwards, going on the offensive, creating a web of flashing steel around the auror's blade., still reading his book at the same time. Within moments, he was disarmed. "Stupefy!" the auror shouted. Mihawk dissipated it with ease, and when the auror started shooting some other, more nasty curses at him, he dealt with those just as easily.

Mihawk moved forwards, ducked the next spell, sidestepped, dodging a gout of acid, and lightly tapped the auror's jugular with his blade.

The auror's eyes gleamed in triumph and he swung his wand around in a circular motion. Mihawk could sense that he was going to cast some sort of air spell. He thought it would choke him, but wasn't too sure. Either way, he wasn't about to let the other man complete it.

He dropped the book and drew Yoru with his other hand, slashing the man's spell to pieces. He flicked the wand out of his grasp at the same time. "Do you yield?" Mihawk asked.

"I yield," the auror said after a moment. Mihawk stepped backwards, disengaging smoothly and sheathed his various blades. He bent down to pick up his dropped book and stuck it into his pocket. He was just about to turn and say something to Dumbledore, when he froze. _Could it be...? _he thought. _OH SHIT! _

The next instant, a loud yell was heard. "HAAAAWWWKY!" A red blur shot past moments later, moving almost too quickly to be seen. Mihawk was thrown backwards off his feet as another man rammed into his torso violently.

"Get off me!" Mihawk managed to grunt, deciding to leave the question to how the hell Shanks got here in the first place for another time. "And _don't _call me that!"

"Aww... but it was so lonely in the forest! And then I saw you!" Shanks said happily.

"CAPTAIN!" came a shout on the forest.

Mihawk let out a strangled yelp as about ten other bodies crashed on top of Shanks in one giant pile. Apparently all the search parties had managed to get to the edge of the Forbidden Forest at the same time.

"I said, get off me!" Mihawk roared, surging to his feet and hurling Red-Hair Pirates in all directions. He took a deep breath, giving them all a glare while straightening his vest and retrieving Yoru from where she had been knocked off his back.

"If you _ever _do that again," Mihawk hissed, "I swear I will kill you!"

"Aww, you wouldn't," Shanks said.

Mihawk smiled one of his rare smiles. It was not a nice smile. No, this smile had a promise of pain for all those who beheld me. "Would you like to find out?" he hissed menacingly.

Shanks gulped. For one who couldn't use Conqueror's Haki, Mihawk was extremely scary all the same. Some of the newer members of the crew started backing away, although the seniors stayed where they were, not at all concerned by the threat.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Mihawk asked at last. "Where'd that auror go?" he glanced around and saw that the man had been thrown away some twenty feet by the enthusiastic crew members.

"I have no idea!" Shanks replied cheerfully to Mihawk's question.

Mihawk sighed and shook his head. "You never change, do you?"

"Of course not," Benn said. "He's Shanks."

"Who are you people?" Dumbledore asked with more force this time. He was pretty sure they hadn't heard him the last time. Or, of course, they could have just been ignoring him... no, that was preposterous!

The Red-Hair Pirates continued to ignore him, various members getting to their feet and moving towards where Mihawk was glaring at everyone in sight. The three newest members, including Rockstar and Aldis, were torn between following their nakama or backing away from the extremely scary-looking Mihawk. Eventually they decided to just go join their nakama. No one else seemed that afraid of the Shichibukai, so it was probably okay, right?

"I _said, _who are you people?!" Dumbledore practically yelled.

"I'm Shanks!" Shanks said happily with a giant grin on his face.

"Benn," Benn said, wondering briefly what kind of impression they were making on the white-bearded old man.

"Lucky Roo. You wouldn't happen to have any meat, would you?" the fat man asked, looking around as if meat would just appear.

_That is one unhealthy obsession, _Yasopp thought before stepping forwards. "Yasopp," he said. "The three newer members who are probably too scared to speak up are Rockstar, Aldis, and Crane."

"Hey! We are _not _too scared to speak up!" Crane, a middle-aged man with black hair that was starting to gray snapped. He wore a sword on one side of his belt and a gun on the other.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," a man with sharp, shark-like teeth said. "I'm Fangor," he said. "I doubt that the others are in any state to introduce themselves, so I'll do it for them," he added, looking over the remaining three Red-Hair Pirates who appeared to be chasing someone. Or each other. Or something. A lot of their antics didn't make sense. "The guy with the monkey is Bambor, the dragon tattoo guy is Lissan, and the blond guy is Tiern.

"I see..." Dumbledore said, mentally committing the names and faces to memory. "And what are you doing here?"

"We don't know," the Red-Hair Pirates responded together. Shanks seemed to be the most cheerful of them, appearing to be oblivious to the fact that he and his crew were stranded in an unknown place.

"Isn't that your ship?" Mihawk asked him, flicking his head to indicate a large ship with a dragon figurehead sitting on the lake.

"Red Force!" Shanks said happily. "She's safe!" He suddenly turned and looked at Mihawk. "We aren't on the Grand Line, are we?"

"You only just figured that out?" his crew muttered, face-palming.

"No. We're in another world," Mihawk replied. "As to how you got here, I have no idea. In any case, if I do not get back to my student soon he will wander off and I will have to spend half the morning tracking him down. I will return shortly."

"Wait!" Shanks called out, bounding after the Shichibukai. "I'll come with you!" He was happily oblivious to the way Mihawk's face tensed slightly before relaxing once more. It was clear that the swordsman did not particularly want Shanks' company.

"I'm not able to stop you, I see," Mihawk said. "Fine. Come if you must."

Shanks grinned and started chattering about something or other. The Shichibukai did his best to ignore the pirate, although it was hard. _He's going to give me a migraine at this rate, _he thought grumpily.

"Cool! That portrait just moved!" Shanks shouted when he saw the first of the moving pictures within the castle walls. "And is that a ghost? Awesome! Woah, the staircases move! This place is so cool!"

Mihawk once again attempted to ignore his unwanted companion. It didn't work. Shanks voice was just the kind that could drive itself into his skull, boring through his brain until it melted into sludge. He had forgotten just how... excitable._.. _Shanks could be when encountering new things.

When he reached the corridor where Zoro's and his rooms were, he almost groaned out loud. Zoro's door was open and it was clear he had gone off looking for Mihawk. "Great," he said out loud. "Shanks, you're about to go on a tour of this place."

"Huh?" Shanks asked intelligently. Mihawk blocked out the Yonkou's voice and closed his eyes, trying to find Zoro's presence.

_ How did he get into the dungeons already? _Mihawk thought in exasperation before striding back down the corridor in the directions of the dungeon. Shanks continued to talk about anything and everything that came into his head. _This is going to be a long, long search, _Mihawk thought. _Curse you, Roronoa. _

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	7. Lost Again

_**Kinda short, but hey, it's a chapter. This will be the last one before I have to leave though. Probably. Maybe. **_

Zoro had decided that he would go searching for Mihawk when the swordsman didn't show up after he had waited for a while. So, he got up and headed left, as he was sure that was the path Mihawk had taken to get to the Forbidden Forest.

A few turns later, Zoro was confident he was headed in the right direction. He glanced out a window and frowned. "Strange," he said out loud. "I was sure that the rooms were on the third floor... I'm too high to be on the third, though. Maybe they moved? Whatever."

Zoro continued on his way, trying to get to the ground level. Within half an hour or so, he had successfully navigated the many moving staircases and confusing corridors of the castle. _Ha! I told you I wouldn't get lost! _He thought triumphantly, deciding to head towards the grounds now. However, he couldn't seem to find his way to the Great Hall. Each turn just seemed to carry him deeper and deeper into the belly of the castle.

Before long, the air had chilled noticeably and there were no more windows. "Why is it so cold?" he muttered. A moment later, a bell sounded throughout the castle and he was suddenly born backwards by a tide of walking students who didn't seem to notice the struggling swordsman in their midst.

Five minutes later, Zoro managed to fight his way to the end of the flow of students and kept on searching for the way to the grounds. The air continued to grow colder and colder, and there were now few portraits on the walls.

Zoro leaned against a wall to rest momentarily and take a stock of his surroundings. Moments later, the floor under his feet vanished and he fell into a long curving tunnel. As he fell, a startled cry tore its way past his lips.

Zoro slid down what appeared to be a slicked down pipe, shooting as fast as he did when Luffy did one of his idiotic moves and grabbed him to get to the ship. In a few minutes, he reached the bottom where he was deposited his feet in the midst of what appeared to be a heap of human bones.

_Nice, _Zoro thought, picking his way among the bones. He soon came out in a giant cavern that was permeated by a strange light that came from everywhere and nowhere. Multiple statues of snakes lined the walls, most of which were hissing or baring their fangs.

ON the far end of the chamber a statue of a man stood against the wall. It had an almost creepy look in its eyes and it reminded Zoro of what someone looked like after they had been frozen by Aokiji. Zoro turned around, once more looking at the craggy cavern. He noticed that there were multiple chutes that led to the chamber.

There was a rasping sound behind him and Zoro spun around to see an immense green snake watching him. The creature must have been at least forty feet long. A primal instinct kept him from looking into its eyes and he backed away slowly, unsheathing his swords as he went.

_What is that? _He thought. _Whatever it is, that is one big-ass snake. And something tells me that _really _don't want to fight it... strange, I would normally love the opportunity to have a fight like this. _

The snake hissed softly, a bone-chilling sound. Its tongue flickered in and out, tasting the air. _Maybe it hasn't seen me? _Zoro thought.

The snake suddenly reared back and lashed forwards, seemingly moving as fast as Luffy did in his Gear Second.

Zoro instinctively leaped to the side, dodging the snake's lunge. Its mouth rammed into the wall, carving out an immense bowl. The creature reared back, and pulled back its head, spitting balls of venom at Zoro.

The swordsman leaped to the side, dodging the balls as they shot towards him before narrowing his eyes. "Santoryu!" he shouted. "Hyakuhachi Pound Ho!" He slashed the air with his swords in a swirling pattern, creating a flying attack that shot towards the snake's eyes.

The creature hissed in rage, jerking its head upwards. The attack struck it on its lower jaw. Dust plumed off its scales, momentarily hiding the head. Zoro turned and started running for one of the chutes, thinking that he might have a better chance against the snake there than in the open.

Zoro cried out as he a scaly tail suddenly wrapped around his body and lifted him into the air upside down. "Santoryu: Tora Gari!" he shouted, attempting to use his close range attack on the tail. Before he could complete the slash he was flung violently through the air and was smashed into the ground.

A strangled grunt tore its way past the swordsman's lips and he gasped as he was lifted again before being slammed into the ground. He clenched his jaw, refusing to give up. His eyes narrowed as he tried to slash the snake's scaly hide once more. However, he was only able to inflict very shallow cuts, and he was continually being smashed into the ground.

He let out a strangled grunt as his old wounds from Sabaody began to act up. _Damn it! _He thought. He tried to keep holding onto his swords, to keep fighting, but his strength was fading from his muscles rapidly. Before long, his swords hung limp in his grasp and Ichimonji fell out of his mouth to clatter uselessly on the ground below him.

"Stop!"a voice commanded. The swordsman could barely comprehend it, but with the words a force like the wind of a hurricane swept past him. He momentarily stopped moving and merely hung in the air, suspended by the tail wrapped around his waist. Then he was lifted back up and started to hurtle towards the ground again.

"I said, _stop!_" There was more force behind the voice this time and his fall abruptly halted with his head just above the ground. The tail unwound around his waist and Zoro fell to the ground. He tried to push himself to his feet, but swayed weakly as he did so. His vision was blurry and he blinked rapidly, hoping that would make it go away.

"Fool, you always get into the worst situations," he thought heard Mihawk saying just before he collapsed. A pair of strong arms caught him and the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the Shichibukai looking down at him.

_**An undetermined amount of time later**_

__The first thing Zoro saw when opening his eyes was someone's upside-down face looking at him. He sat up on reflex and cried out when their foreheads collided. "Ow ow ow ow..." someone said. Zoro looked around and saw a red-haired man with three scars over one eye holding his head where a large bump had already formed.

"You're awake," the man said at the same time that Zoro said, "Who are you?"

"Yes I am," Zoro said in response to the man's statement. "You look familiar... But no, that's impossible." He scowled, shaking his head, wincing when the movement incited pain throughout his neck and chest.

He glanced around more carefully, noting that he was back in the infirmary. "Where are my swords?" he asked after a moment.

"On the table," the man replied. "My name is Shanks."

"_The _Shanks?" Zoro said in surprise. "As in Red-Haired Shanks?"

"Who else?" Shanks replied, sitting down in a nearby chair and assuming a very relaxed posture. "I have no idea how I got here," he added.

"You remind me of Luffy," Zoro muttered.

"Luffy? You know Luffy? Oh, but of course you do. You're in his crew, right?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," Zoro replied. "Why is there a giant snake under the school?"

"Don't ask me," Shanks said. "I have no clue." He seemed to be far too happy for someone who just admitted that they had no idea about something.

"Far too much like Luffy..." Zoro muttered. His thoughts shifted to his idiot captain for the first time since he had been transported into this weird other universe. _I hope you're okay... _he thought. _I will definitely get stronger... for your sake!_

"Where's the boss of this place?" Zoro asked after a moment. "I don't see her anywhere."

"Eh?" Shanks asked, with an almost child-like look of confusion on his face. "Boss? Huh?"

"Yeah. Scary woman... was going to confine me to _bed rest! _Ugh!" He muttered the last, shuddering in horror as he did so.

Shanks winced in sympathy. "I hate it when Aldis does that..." he muttered.

"Your ship's doctor?" Zoro guessed.

"Yeah. He actually joined fairly recently, right before I was acknowledged as a Yonkou..."

"You mean you managed to survive that long without a proper doctor?" Zoro said in disbelief.

"Sort of," Shanks said casually. "We didn't really have a cook before Rockstar, either. He joined at about the same time."

"You didn't have a cook OR a doctor?" Zoro muttered. "So much like Luffy... didn't even wait to gather a proper crew before setting off to the seas..."

"Well, it worked out alright, didn't it? There isn't much else that matters... Where is Hawky anyway?"

"'Hawky?'" Zoro asked, raising one eyebrow in disbelief. He couldn't believe that the stern-faced Shichibukai would ever let Shanks call him that.

"Yup!" Shanks said cheerfully. "He said he was gonna be back in an hour or so... The old guy... was it Sbumbledore? No... Dumpledoor! No wait, that's not right either..."

"Dumbledore," Zoro supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, him. Hawky got called to his office. Something about a test or some such. I wonder if that's why he was fighting another old guy with his kogatana when I saw him?"

"Kogatana?" Zoro asked. "Do you mean his cross-dagger thing?"

"Yeah. Kogatana. Hawky seemed pretty angry when Dumpledore said that he wanted to talk about test results." Shanks shrugged. "Must be irritating to have you skills 'tested' when you're the strongest swordsman in the world..."

"Yeah. He's got some history with the old man, too. I don't know if he's told you..."

"I can guess," Shanks replied. "He told me enough when we first met for me to be able to figure out the rest."

"When you first met?"

"Yeah. I first met him right at the beginning of the Grand Line... my crew was a lot smaller then..." his eyes darkened somewhat. "Ylissa was still alive, then, too... She used to be our doctor..." His voice trailed off then somewhat, but he continued before long.

_**Well, that's it for a while... Next chapter: More on Mihawk's past**_


	8. Dracule Mihawk

_**I'M BACK! Woohoo! So, once again this did not end up turning out like I expected it to (despite the fact that I have most of this chapter down on paper...) so regular update speed for the next one. I still have quite a bit of written stuff though. Oh yeah and I'm gonna be making some minor changes to some previous chapters at some point—mostly just adding in some flavor, nothing that really requires rereading. Anyway, enjoy and tell me what you think. **_

_**Oh yeah and SlytherinChan the offer still applies, and also congratulations to .587 and Mage of Beginning for being the 100th favorite and 150th follower respectively. You can do the same thing. Okay I'll shut up now. On to the story!  
**_

_**20(ish) years ago, somewhere near the beginning of Paradise**_

The rather out of tune (although enthusiastic) Red-Hair Pirates' rendition of Binks' Sake was cut off by a shout from the crow's nest.

"Oi, Captain!" Yasopp yelled, sticking his head over the edge. "Pirate ship to starboard!"

"Aww, interrupting the party... party pooper..." Lucky Roo mumbled, regretfully putting down his overflowing cup of sake.

"Hush, this is important! They'll be the first people we've met since entering the Grand Line!" Benn replied, whacking Lucky on the head.

"Oi, what was that for?" Lucky muttered. "You nearly made me bite my tongue off!"

"Then stop eating meat all the time!" Benn replied.

"But... meeeaaaat!" Lucky complained. "How can I give up meat? I mean, it's just not physically possible!"

"Considering Ylissa is mostly vegetarian, it's entirely possible. Now shut up and listen to what Yasopp has to say," Benn ordered.

"Fine, fine," Lucky muttered. Off in the corner, Bambor shook his head and sighed. Monstar chattered at Yasopp eagerly, perhaps saying for him to tell them more in monkey language.

"What's the mark?" Benn called up. He was prepared to fight if he had to, and it would really help if they knew who they were up against first.

"I don't recognize it," Yasopp called back. "Should I describe it?"

"Of course! Tell us already!" Shanks shouted boisterously. Then, more quietly, "Ow my head..."

"It's _your _fault for insisting on partying while you still have a hangover," Ylissa pointed out. "And no, I am _not _going to give you a hangover remedy. If you drank less you wouldn't need it."

"But... saaakeee!" Shanks whined in the same tone Lucky had used earlier to talk about meat.

"Yeah, gotta agree with Captain on this one," Tiern remarked. "It's not possible to live without sake... it's just not."

"Can we stay on topic, _please?_" Benn said irritably. Though he supposed he _should _have expected it... such was the crazy crew he had signed up with. _Sometimes I think I got on the wrong ship, _he thought to himself. "Yasopp, describe it!"

"Fine, fine," Yasopp shouted back. "Skull with hawk's eyes over a pair of swords with leaf-green hilts. The swords are vertical on each side of the skull."

"No one I know," Benn said with a shrug. He glanced around at the rest of his crew, but no one else knew. Especially not Shanks, who was still complaining about his hangover. "Shut up!" Benn finally roared at him.

"My _head!_" the unfortunate captain whimpered. "Ah! It burns!"

"That's _your _fault! So stop complaining about it!" everyone yelled at him.

Shanks clutched his head in response, moaning in pain. "Nooo... stop it... must have more sake..."

"Is that you response to _everything_?!" Bambor muttered.

"Of course, he's Shanks," Benn replied as if that explained everything. It really did...

"On the other hand, sake is always good... I mean no matter what the circumstance sake is always tasty..." Tiern pointed out. "I mean, where would you be if you didn't have sake?"

"Like meat!" Lucky said happily, taking another bite out of his ever-present leg of meat.

"Hey didn't Yasopp say something about a ship?!" Bambor asked. Monstar chattered at him and whacked him on the head. Probably the Monkeyish equivalent of _Yes, idiot! _

"Yeah, he did," Benn said. "Anything else?" he called up, ignoring Shanks' persistent complaints about the general achiness of his head.

"Yeah, actually," Yasopp replied. His voice was strangely soft, which was rather unusual for the pirate who was always telling everyone loud and rambunctious stories about his son. "They look like they've been attacked... the sails are partially burnt and the ship has multiple cannonball holes. There's what looks like a lot of people strewn about on deck. No one seems to be moving."

There was a moment of silence as the pirates digested that information. Even Shanks shut up about his hangover. Then Ylissa took charge, as she usually did in any kind of situation when someone who was not their enemy (and sometimes their enemy) was mortally wounded.

"Tiern, Bambor!" Ylissa shouted. "You're coming with me to look for survivors! Benn, get this ship turned toward that boat! M'old bones won't be able to jump very far."

"So says she when she fights using her legs...!" Bambor muttered. Monstar chattered in agreement then abruptly fled when Ylissa stomped over to him.

"_What was that?_" she hissed at him, daring him to repeat himself. Monstar quivered in fear of the scary old lady.

"N-nothing!" Bambor said quickly. "Nothing at all! Isn't that right, Monstar?!" The monkey in question chattered nervously, still hiding from Ylissa's wrath.

Ylissa "hrumphed" and walked away back to the deck of the ship where she leaned against the side, looking over the water and at the quickly approaching pirate ship.

Before long, the Tantamount (Benn named it and Shanks thought it sounded cool) was close enough to the other ship for the gap to be jumped. The team chosen by Ylissa leaped onto the other ship to check for survivors while Lucky, Yasopp, poor, hungover Shanks, and Benn stayed behind.

As the trio landed, the wood of the ship groaned as if it was under massive stresses. Tiern frowned and remarked, "We should finish this up quickly. The ship's probably gonna break apart soon."

Bambor nodded and went off to search the front of the ship. Tiern went below and Ylissa searched the back. The ship continued creaking and groaning underneath them alarmingly and it started to shudder, too.

Tiern gladly climbed out from below a few minutes later; he did _not want_ to be caught down there if the ship sank. "No survivors," he reported.

Ylissa started to walk back towards the Tantamount with a scowl on her face. "None here either," the old woman said.

"I found one!" Bambor said triumphantly. He appeared carrying a man of about 20 over his shoulder. He had a mess of shaggy hair and what looked like a giant broadsword strapped to his back.*

"Alight, let's get going," Ylissa said, leaping back onto the Tantamount.

"Good thing," Tiern muttered. "This ship is about to sink."

In fact, almost as soon as the three landed back on their own ship, the other ship cracked almost completely in half and started to sink. _Told you, _Tiern thought.

"Damn, all those people," Benn muttered, lighting a cigarette while staring out at the sinking wreckage.

"While it's sad that all those people died, we still have this one to save," Ylissa said sharply, getting everyone's attention. "Tiern, bring him to my cabin. Lucky, get a pot of hot water. Benn, you're on guard duty. Well? Get to it!"

"But I can't carry a pot of water and meat at the same time..." Lucky murmured mournfully while going off to fetch said pot.

Benn sighed, wishing that Ylissa didn't always choose him to guard her door. Of course, the others _would _attempt to peek and disturb her patients' rest if there wasn't anyone to keep them away, but why did it always have to be _him?_ Then again, any of the others would probably just let whoever wanted to peek do so...

"Now all of you get out!" Ylissa snapped at the Red Hair pirates that were started to gather around her patient's bed. "Out, I said!" she made a shooing gesture at them with her hand. Grumbling good-naturedly, the Red Hair Pirates went off to do random stuff.

Shanks continued complaining about his hangover, alternatively asking Benn for something to help with it and being told to shut up by everyone in the crew. Yasopp started telling everyone yet _another _story about his son. Tiern started drinking sake again and before long Shanks was also drinking again. Monstar kept trying to eat Benn's cigarettes. Bambor kept chasing after Monstar and yelling things at his pet at the top of his lungs, causing Shanks to scream "My _head!_" at the top of _his _lungs, making Yasopp have to yell to make himself heard (not that anyone was listening). All in all, it was back to a relatively normal, noisy day on the Tantamount.

Lucky realized that he was almost out of meat, so he headed off to the kitchen to make more. He supposed he might as well get dinner started, although he knew he would become the victim of a hyperactive Shanks if he announced it. So he didn't, attempting to avoid the possibility of Shanks running wild in the kitchen.

About an hour later, Lucky walked out of the kitchen, prepared to leap out of the way the moment after he spoke. "Food!" he yelled before jumping. Unfortunately he wasn't fast enough as he was knocked backwards by the majority of the Red Hair pirates. Even Tiern joined in. Benn, fortunately, did not.

"Need a hand?" Benn asked Lucky, extending one to his nakama.

"Yeah, thanks," Lucky replied, pulling himself up. He glanced over at the table and saw that all of the other pirates had already started eating. And Yasopp had already started spiking other people's food. And Monstar had already started stealing people's food. Shanks started doing the same. "What are you doing away from guard duty anyway?"

"Oh, Ylissa knows that everyone'll be too distracted by food to bother her," Benn replied. "So she dismissed me to go eat."

"Oh. Makes sense, I guess." Lucky shrugged and sat down at an open place at the table. Shortly he began eating, you guessed it, meat.

"Oi, someone should bring food to Ylissa," Benn pointed out. Somehow everyone heard him and responded instantly.

"Not it!" they all chorused, except for one oblivious idiot who was having far too much fun eating to notice anything at all about his surroundings (except for the food of course).

"Shanks," Benn said.

"Eh? What?" Shanks asked.

"You have to go deliver food to Ylissa."

"Eeeeh? Whyyyy?" Shanks whined.

"You were last," Benn replied.

"Eh? But I was first into the food place..."

_Food place? Really ? _Benn thought with a sigh. "It's um, complicated. Just do it," he said at last. It probably wouldn't do any good to explain it to the resident red-haired idiot anyway.

"Fine," Shanks grumbled. He grabbed two plates of food and made his way down to the demon's lair.

"Don't eat any or Ylissa'll kill you!" Benn shouted after him.

Shanks glanced at the plates. Well, now that Benn mentioned it it _was _awfully tempting... no. He mustn't. Or else Ylissa would kill him. Right. But all that food... No, Ylissa. But food... Ylissa. Food. Ylissa. Food. Ylissa. So hard to decide!

Luckily Shanks was saved from _that _dilemma by his arrival at Ylissa's door. Here he encountered another problem. Ylissa's door didn't have a doorknob, and his hands were full. So he couldn't just push the door open with his hands like he usually did. He would have to get, ugh, creative. The other thing about the door was that it required quite a shove to get it open. Unless Ylissa had oiled the hinges recently. No, that was impossible. Shanks scowled at the door, trying to figure out how to deal with it.

Back at the table, everyone was laughing at Shanks' expression. Benn's random Den-Den Mushi throughout the ship could be annoying sometimes, but on the other hand... it was awesome that Benn happened to have a projector with him. This was just too awesome to miss!

Shanks finally nodded to himself, having decided to just lean against the door to open it. But wait, Ylissa would get mad at him if he did that without knocking. And his hands were full. He couldn't knock with food plates. So what was he going to do? Oh, he knew! He'd just knock with his leg!

So he sort of awkwardly kicked the door lightly a couple of times, not noticing the ease with which it moved inwards.

Soon, an irate voice called from within. "Shanks, stop kicking the door and get in here!" she snapped. "Although if you're just here to make a nuisance of yourself, then leave!"

"Food~!" Shanks sang as he leaned against the door... and fell through. He yelped, frantically trying to recover his balance. Food plates went flying across the room and Ylissa barely caught them. "Shanks!" she yelled.

"AAAAAAH!" Shanks replied, still flailing his arms for balance. Then he slipped on something and went sliding across the room... right on top of the guy they had rescued from the ship. Unfortunately, said person happened to wake up then to find Shanks nearly on top of him.

"Get off!" he shouted, punching Shanks in the face and sending him flying back out through the door. Ylissa slammed the door shut on the poor captain.

"My face..." Shanks whimpered. "And my _head!_ It hurts..."

Still, though, he could hardly sit around moping when there was food to be had! So he quickly headed back to the dining room. He didn't expect the sight that greeted him, that was that all the food had already been eaten! "No way..." he muttered before passing out.

The Red Hair pirates took one look at each other and burst out laughing once more. Then they pulled out food from where they had hidden it and continued eating it, laughing the whole while.

_**The next morning**_

"So what's your name anyway?" Shanks asked the stranger cheerfully. They were both at the side of the ship and the other man was scowling into the water, brooding about the death of his nakama.

"Har-" he started to say, then stopped. Something shifted in his eyes as he remembered that terrible battle... _Damn them! _He thought furiously. _I swear... I _will _hunt you down and kill you... Frog Pirates! _Then, _I should take a new name... something that honors my fallen nakama. I can do that for them at least... _"Mihawk. My name is Dracule Mihawk." _We were the Hawk Pirates after all... _

"Hi Hawky!" Shanks said boisterously. "So what're you gonna do now anyway?"

The newly-named Mihawk's left eye twitched. "I'll cut you up unless you stop using that _ridiculous _nickname," he replied with a scowl.

"Aww, you're no fun!" Shanks said merrily.

"Shut up!" Mihawk responded.

Shanks laughed. "Hey do you have a bounty yet?"

"No and why do you care?" Mihawk responded.

"Just curious," Shanks responded innocently. "I've been sober for too long... I need more sake..." he muttered before wandering off in search of alcohol. Mihawk watched him go and shook his head with a sigh. He continued staring out of the blue waters of the Grand Line, wondering where his nakama were.

_I'll miss you guys, _he thought sadly. _But... I know I need to move on! Perhaps this is too cold but... you once said that you didn't want me crying if you guys ever died! That instead I should find my __own path in the world-! For you... For you I will become so strong that my name will be heard all the way in Heaven! I will become... the strongest swordsman in the world!_

_***Just to make this clear, this is not Yoru. He does not have Yoru yet.**_

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	9. Moving On

_**20(ish) years ago, somewhere near the beginning of Paradise**_

Early the next morning, Mihawk could be seen in the back of the boat, training with a pair of enormous weights that he had found somewhere. Shanks came wandering over, having gotten up early (for once) and he had decided to go see if he could go find a snack. After all, no one else was up so no one would be there to guard the refrigerator from him.

"Whatcha doing?" Shanks asked the sweating swordsman cheerfully.

"What it looks like," he grunted.

"Well it looks like you're lifting these big shiny metal objects. I can't see why though..." Shanks thought out loud, tapping his chin.

"I'm training, idiot," Mihawk replied. He sighed and set down his weights. He probably wasn't going to be able to train in peace with Shanks running around already. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I woke up," Shanks said, giving Mihawk a 'duh' expression. "I mean, how else would I be awake? I was just thinking about going to the kitchen and seeing if I could manage to get any food... the problem is that I don't know how to cook but there's probably something that I can eat just by itself right?"

"Shut up. You are giving me a headache," Mihawk responded. He wasn't exactly feeling social, with everything that had happened two days ago.

"Oh, you get those too?" Shanks asked. "Strange... I actually don't have a hangover today... hmm, whatever. Maybe it's cuz Benn stopped me from drinking as much as I wanted to?" he sighed. "Well, whatever. I wish Benn hadn't locked away the sake... then I could go drink..."

Mihawk didn't respond. Shanks glanced over at his companion and noted that he had sat down, leaning against the railing. His humongous broadsword was propped against said railing. The thing was taller than him!

"Where'd you get that, anyway?" he asked, pointing to the giant sword.

"The sword?" Mihawk asked.

"Yeah! Did you wrest it from an enemy? Did you have to defeat someone to get it? Did you win it in a tournament? Did you-"

"I bought it."

"Oh. How boring."

"My apologies."

"It's okay." Shanks searched around in his head for something else to talk about. Before long he came up with yet another topic of conversation that couldn't have interested Mihawk less. "So did you hear about the new Naruto book?!" he asked excitedly.

"What is this... 'Naruto?'" Mihawk asked, almost as if he feared what the answer to his question would be.

"Oh it's this awesome series about ninjas and stuff. See there's this blond guy named Naruto—he's the main character—and he has this giant fox thing inside of him that has like these awesome nine tails and can destroy mountains! Well not really inside of him more like he was sealed inside of him by his awesome father—oh and by the way he's the Kyuubi, his name is Kurama, he's awesome—and so anyway he like goes on adventures and stuff. And he has other ninja with him most of the time. There's these other two characters, Sakura and Sasuke and Sakura like has this giant crush on Sasuke, who's awesome, but Sasuke won't acknowledge her and also the main guy has a crush on Sakura but Sakura doesn't like him back at all!"

As soon as the pirate captain stopped to take a breath, Mihawk jumped in. "I tuned you out after your first 'awesome.'" he stated.

Shanks was quiet for a moment. _Ah, blessed peace, _Mihawk thought. Sadly that moment was far too short for his liking. "What does that mean?" the pirate asked, tilting his head sideways. "Does it have to do with den-den mushi? Oh, did I turn into a den-den mushi?"

Mihawk sighed then settled for a simple "Shut up." After a moment he added, "Go away."

"Aww, but _Hawwwky,_"Shanks protested. "I don't wanna go away!"

"Do you really think I care? Also, stop calling me that!" Mihawk snapped.

"Aww... but Hawwwwwky..." Shanks began again. Mihawk growled in irritation and walked over to another part of the ship. Shanks followed.

"Stop following me!" he growled at the pirate captain.

"I'm not following you," Shanks said innocently.

Mihawk gave the captain a glare and then decided that if he didn't say anything maybe Shanks would get bored and go away. Ah, how wonderful it would be if that happened... sadly, it didn't, and Mihawk had to endure Shanks chattering into his ear about random things for the next couple of hours.

"Captain, stop bothering him!" a voice yelled from somewhere. Mihawk glanced up to see Ylissa come running towards them. Shortly thereafter Shanks got kicked in the head.

"Ah, thanks," Mihawk said. "But how did you know he was bothering me?"

"Captain bothers _everyone,_" Ylissa replied with a slight grin. "The others aren't up yet..." she scowled and looked in the direction of the boys' room. "I'll be back shortly."

A few minutes later a loud yell was heard. "Get up!" followed by several kicking sounds.

"Ugh, Ylissa... the sun's barely risen!" Tiern protested, stumbling out of the room first. He rubbed his eyes and looked around blearily. "Oh, hi there," he said to Mihawk.

"Stop waking us up so early..." Lucky muttered. "Need meat..."

"Nooo... why can't you let us sleep in?" Benn mumbled as he made his way out into the bright sun.

"Usopp... What are you doing with that ball... argh! Don't throw it at me!" Yasopp mumbled sleepily, still not quite aware that he was awake.

"Does she always do this?" Mihawk asked Tiern in an undertone with a wary glance at Ylissa.

"Pretty much," Tiern said. "She never lets us sleep in-never-certainly never past dawn... she's a demon."

"It's a good thing that I am used to waking up early then..." Mihawk muttered, knowing fully well that he would have to put up with the crew's antics until they reached the next island.

"That will come in handy," Tiern agreed. "Oi, Yasopp, wake up already!"

"No... Usopp... where'd you go?!" Yasopp shouted, looking frantically all around the deck. Then he realized where he was and just blinked once, slowly. "Oh..." was all he said.

"Don't just say 'Oh!'" everyone (minus Mihawk) yelled at him.

"Dahahahaha! Hey where'd the sake go?' Shanks asked, looking around for said alcohol.

"You are _not _drinking so early in the morning!" Ylissa informed him sternly, shaking a finger in front of his face.

"What about me?" Tiern asked cheerfully, also looking around for sake. He ended up getting kicked halfway across the ship by Ylissa.

_Violent... _Mihawk thought. He quietly headed towards the mast and climbed up into the crow's nest. Monstar leaped from Bambor's head and followed him, easily leaping between ropes and sails.

Below, Bambor quickly noticed that Monstar's familiar weight on his shoulders was gone. "Hey, where'd Monstar go?!" he shouted.

"Hawky disappeared, too..." Shanks said in a mournful voice.

"You are _not _bothering him, either of you," Ylissa said in a firm tone.

"He probably just wants to be alone," Benn pointed out. "It has only been a day or so since he woke up, after all."

"Fine, fine..." Shanks muttered grumpily.

Later that day, Mihawk awoke, standing up as was his habit to do after he woke up. He didn't expect the obstacle in the way, namely Shanks. The red-haired pirate captain had been leaning over him, looking at him curiously, and when Mihawk stood up their foreheads collided.

"Ow..." Shanks muttered, holding his head where a large bump had already started to grow. Interestingly enough, his head didn't hurt because of a hangover for the first time in... well, a long time. Far longer than poor Shanks could remember.

"Why were you leaning over me?" Mihawk asked somewhat wearily, holding on to his own head. His free hand reached out and grabbed his broadsword from where it had been leaning against the side of the crow's nest, moving it closer to him out of habit.

"I thought you were dead!" Shanks responded.

Mihawk gave him a flat look and decided that that wasn't even worthy of a response. Instead, he walked to the side of the crow's nest and stared out across the water. Night had apparently fallen while he had been sleeping, and now only a rosy tint marked the horizon. The stars gleamed above while a gibbous moon shone in the sky.

"Anyway, what do you dream about?" Shanks asked. "It's not about your nakama, you weren't thrashing about. It was like you were... cowering, almost."

Damn, why did Shanks have to be so intuitive? Mihawk didn't particularly want to be reminded of _those _nightmares which still occasionally came back to haunt him. Having one _now, _so soon after the death of his treasured nakama, well, he _really _didn't want to think about it. "It's none of your business," he replied brusquely, feeling that the pirate wouldn't go away with an answer. "I've only known you for one day."

"Aw, c'mon!" Shanks whined. "I wanna know! 'Sides, Ylissa says that holding bad memories inside of you is bad for you somehow... or something like that anyway."

"And what makes you think that they come from bad memories?" Mihawk shouldn't have answered, he really shouldn't. Damn his charisma.

"Obvious, ain't it? Where else do bad dreams come from? Anyway, tell me!"

"No."

"Aww, Hawky..." Shanks protested. Mihawk glanced at his face and instantly wished he hadn't. Shanks was using his version of the famous "puppy-dog eyes" trick. The golden-eyes man half expected him to sprout a tail and ears.

"No. I already told you, it's none of your business."

There was a moment of silence. "Did you come from an abusive family?" Shanks asked suddenly. Mihawk flinched as if he'd been struck. "You aren't the only one," Shanks continued as if Mihawk hadn't done anything. "I ran away from my parents when I was six. I just wanted to escape... escape everything. I hung around town for a while as a street rat after that, until I joined Roger's crew." He didn't say more, just waited for Mihawk to reply. Perhaps he did have the capabilities to be serious after all.

When the swordsman finally did, the words were so soft that Shanks had to strain to hear them. "I did not have an escape route," he said quietly. "I ran away, once or twice, but they always found me... they would beat me when I got 'home.'" His mouth twisted into a bitter grimace. "As if I could ever call that place home. Then... I got this wonderful chance to go to a boarding school and get away from them for ten months out of the year, although my 'family' didn't want me to go. I went, of course.

"A lot of things happened there, things which I can not tell you about, but I learned that there was a madman after my blood. I nearly died a lot over the five years that I attended that school." His expression changed again, turning into more of a far-away look before changing to a look of bitter anger. "In my fifth year... I learned that the headmaster of the school had been manipulating my life and had been the one who sent me to my 'family' in the first place when my parents had specifically said not to send me there. Apparently he also paid my two best friends to be my friends as well, at least in the beginning. So I left and became a pirate.

"I don't really hate my so-called 'friends.' Not anymore... but I will always hate the puppet master who was behind it all... _Dumbledore._" He spat the name with such venom that it made Shanks wince slightly.

He said nothing more, and Shanks did not press him. The pirate had already gotten more out of the other man than he thought he would, and he didn't think it would be appropriate for him to ask him if he would fight him, since he probably would say no in any case, and this moment was like all sad and emotional, and he felt that it would be a bad idea to say anything at the moment. Never let it be said that Shanks did not follow his instincts.

A few minutes later, Mihawk turned to him. "Wait, you were in the Pirate King's crew?"

"Yup!" Shanks said cheerfully. "I was a cabin boy!"

"You probably have the best chance of finding One Piece, then," Mihawk remarked. "Since you already know where it is as a part of Roger's crew."

"I suppose." Shanks shrugged dismissively. "It's not really important. I don't care about finding One Piece, really. I just want to be able to live a life of freedom on the seas with my nakama."

"You too..." Mihawk murmured to himself. He sat down by the side of the crow's nest and leaned back on the wall, staring up at the stars. "That's what my crew cared about, too," he said softly. Nothing more was said between them. Mihawk didn't notice when Shanks quietly got up and left, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Throughout the days that followed, Mihawk had a tendency to keep to himself. He could often be found staring off across the water, or training himself with various exercises. Occasionally he would practice with his sword itself, and upon those occasions everyone gave the wall of flashing steel a wide berth.

More than once he woke up at night, a scream on his lips, but he didn't tell anyone. He responded to it by throwing himself into training, more than he had ever done before aboard his old ship. _For my nakama, _he thought whenever he felt his resolve to be weakening. When he wasn't training or staring off into the water, he was sleeping. He ate if food was placed in front of him, but didn't go down to the dining room on his own.

For the most part, he avoided the Red Hair Pirates as much as was possible on their own ship. This was helped by the fact that Ylissa had told them not to bother him when he trained or stared off into space. She was worried about him, but knew that he had to work things out in his own time.

He _did _help out whenever a storm came up, though, and Benn found that he could be included in orders during such times. Other than that, he didn't really respond to attempts to talk to him. Shanks often watched him with worry in his eyes. His nakama noticed this happening, and tried several times to ask Shanks what was wrong, but the captain would just say that nothing was wrong. If Mihawk had wanted the rest of his crew to know he would have told them. Shanks didn't entirely feel right about keeping this from his nakama, but it was not his secret.

A few days after they picked up Mihawk, they encountered a group of marines. It was a small patrol, only one battleship, but the Tantamount wasn't fast enough to get away. Mihawk had stopped training and simply stared across the water at the ship with a calculating look on his face. Most of the crew were busy rebounding cannonballs, and so did not immediately notice when he unsheathed his unnamed sword.

_I can do this, _Mihawk thought. The theory was right, and he thought he had come close to it several times in his training sessions. He raised the immense sword above his head to his right and stood up on the rail. His right hand grasped the hilt while his left held the guard. He brought it slashing down and a large air blade erupted from the sword.

It cut through the battleship, throwing the marines into confusion. It was not a clean cut all the way through, but the diagonal slash had been large enough to severely damage one side of the ship and let the ocean pour in.

After that, Mihawk returned to staring out at sea. Shanks, however, was inspired to try doing that sort of attack himself. Before long he had mastered flying attacks by shooting them at the water. However, after he had managed to cut off a large piece of sail with one, Tiern forbade him from practicing them more on the ship.

When they reached a inhabited Summer Island the next day, Benn piloted the ship up a river to keep it out of sight. It was only when he had finished guiding the Tantamount to its hiding spot when he noticed that Mihawk had gone. He had simply left without so much as a good bye to the crew that he had spent the last week with.

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	10. Prankers Unite!

Zoro was quiet for some time after Shanks finished speaking. At last, he said, "Poor Mihawk." A surge of unusual empathy found its way to the surface. The older swordsman had been through so much... no wonder he was so distant and cold all the time.

"Don't let him hear you say that," Shanks warned. "He doesn't like it when other people pity him."

"I can understand that," Zoro muttered quietly. He remembered almost feeling as if he were drowning when Kuina died, and half of it was from the fact that everyone kept acting oddly around him and giving him pitying looks, even though he wasn't the one who had died. It had been... irritating, to say the least.

A moment later, the door opened to admit one of the Red Hair Pirates who Zoro hadn't met. He wore a hat similar to Chopper's, except that it was all blocked with a pair of crossed silver needles in the center. He wore a black trench coat that brushed the ground. His straight brown hair hung down to his shoulders and his eyes were a startling, almost electric blue. He wore a grin that, on first sight, appeared to be more than mildly maniacal.

"Ooh, Aldis!" Shanks called out cheerfully. "What're you up here for? Did Benn recruit you?"

"Yeah, 'e sent me ta 'elp 'im set up 'is network 'ere," the newcomer, apparently named Aldis replied. Zoro noticed that he held multiple baby den-den mushi in his hand.

"Oh, not that..." Shanks groaned. "Oi, Benn, you know that if we find them we'll turn them off, just like on Red Force, right?"

"All part of the challenge," one of the den-den mushi responded. "Besides, I need a network here at the school. What would happen if there were events going on that I hadn't recorded? My network has been of great use on the Red Force and Tantamount both!"

"Yeah... like they helped so much in getting us to kick you for invading our privacy..." another voice muttered in the background.

"Oh, shut up Lucky..." A moment later there was a loud, meaty thump.

"That was for the one that I found in my room this morning. No... my meat... it's ruined now..." His voice as he said the last part was the true sound of abject sadness. A door opened and closed somewhere in the room; presumably Lucky had gone off to find more meat.

"In any case, I don' believe we've met," Aldis said then, looking past Shanks to Zoro where he was still lying on the bed. "I'm Aldis."

"Oh, that's Zoro. He's Hawky's love interest," Shanks said glibly.

"OI!" Zoro practically screamed at the Yonko. "Since when?!"

"Oh, you've gotta be blind," Shanks said, waving a hand at the swordsman. "It's obvious! There's no one else it could be!"

"How the hell do you even know if he's gay in the first place? And why do you think _I'm _gay?!" Zoro muttered.

"It's obvious," Shanks replied.

"I fail to see how you have come by this observation when there is nothing in it but mere unguided rumor." Shanks glanced up and his face paled somewhat. Mihawk was casually leaning against the doorway into the infirmary with his arms crossed across his chest. Shanks had no way of knowing how long the other swordsman had been there.

Aldis froze in his position behind the curtains. Luckily he had been back there in the interest of placing a baby den-den mushi when Mihawk had come in. Or so he hoped. The point was Mihawk definitely couldn't _see _him. Aldis thought back quickly and tried to think if he had used 'Hawky' to refer to the swordsman at any point in the conversation. He didn't _think _so... The Red hair pirates' tendency to use that nickname whenever possible was going to get them all killed.

"Aldis, why are you hiding behind the curtains?" Mihawk asked in a cool voice.

Aldis froze even more, if that was possible. _He can't know I'm here, he can't know I'm here, _he thought to himself rapidly. _Oh damn, he has Haki... _If he had actually taken a moment to step back and look at it logically, then he would have realized that there wasn't _really _a reason to be afraid of the Shichibukai, after all _he _hadn't been the one glibly talking about Mihawk's love interest.

Shanks gulped as he received another one of Mihawk's glares. "Red-Hair, shoo," he told the man, gently waving his hand at him as if the pirate were a fly. He glanced back to Zoro. "And why are you looking at me like that?"

Zoro immediately attempted to look somewhere else, anywhere but Mihawk. Damn it, he wasn't sure if he could act the same way around the older swordsman that he usually did. Shanks, meanwhile, quickly left and Aldis followed the moment he thought the coast was clear. Mihawk walked across the room and sat down in the chair that had been recently vacated.

"Madam Pomfrey has informed me that you are to stay in bed for the next week," he said, apparently content to ignore how strangely Zoro was acting. "This is a perfect chance for you to get the basics of Observation Haki. I mentioned that I would be teaching you this earlier, now is a good time to start."

Zoro, who had started to look somewhat crestfallen at the mention of a week of bed rest (How would he be able to go out and train?) perked up somewhat at the mention of learning _something. _"Okay, so what do I do?" he asked, although his mind wasn't really on it.

Mihawk eyed him for a moment, then said, "I am still the same person. Despite the fact that you know more about my... fallen nakama, that does not mean that I am any different."

"I _know _that," Zoro responded.

"Then stop thinking about it, or you will be unable to focus sufficiently to grasp this."

"Yes, I _know,_" Zoro reiterated.

"Then if you continue to act like this around me, I will... _act, _understood?" Mihawk said. "After the week is up, of course. It would not do to have Madam Pomfrey angry at me for hurting her patient."

"I understand," Zoro grumbled. Yes, he understood, Shanks had been right, the Shichibukai did not want his pity or any form of it.

"Good." Mihawk nodded briskly, then changed the topic to Haki, apparently feeling content that the subject had been sufficiently addressed. "To start off with, do you remember how you see magic?" Mihawk began. "Go into that state."

After a moment, Zoro nodded to indicate that he was there. He glanced around the room, feeling the various strands of magic that were woven into almost everything around him. This magic felt a bit more natural than the shields that Mihawk had conjured in the forest, though. Almost as if it were part of the inherent properties instead of being something that was forcibly impressed upon the world.

"Good. That is a decent starting point. Now, broaden your senses. Try to feel everything around you. If you can, go into a state similar to the one you were when you first cut steel."

Zoro thought back to that fight with Mr. 1, and how there had just been that moment of perfect clarily when he had _known _where the rubble was going to fall, where he could _feel _that he could cut in just that way and be able to sever steel. Finding that state again was hard, especially in a situation like this when he was lying down and not in any sort of danger.

After a few minutes, Zoro thought he had it, very dimly. He could feel more than the magic around him now, he could almost sense the stone floor itself. It was very, very dim, not at all like what it had been in his fight, but he suspected that it would improve. He returned his mental look back to Mihawk and noted that the Shichibukai was a mass of energy compared to everything else. It wasn't that he had a stronger presence than the stone, no, it was more that his energy was just... _different. _

If he had to describe it, he would say that the energy was like a calm and perfectly controlled stream flowing throughout his body. "Okay, I'm there, but how do I use this to predict someone's movements?" Zoro asked.

"The first time is the hardest," Mihawk said. "Look at the energy you can see flowing throughout my body. Close your eyes."

Zoro did as he was instructed. He was completely unprepared for the punch that caught him in the arm. He thought he did see a shift in the energy before Mihawk struck, but it was too subtle for him to catch. "Concentrate," was all the Shichibukai said before striking again.

_I thought I was supposed to be resting,_ was Zoro's wry thought before he turned his attention back to Mihawk. This time he shifted his arm away from the Shichibukai's punch before it struck. He wasn't sure how he knew, he just _knew _where it would go. It just made sense, kind of like how he had just _known _where the rock would fall during that fight.

"_What _do you think you're doing to my patient, Mr. Dracule?!" a female voice yelled from somewhere nearby. Zoro once again broadened his focus and found another presence who had just emerged through a door coming towards him. He opened his eyes to find it was Madam Pomfrey. Unfortunately for him, as soon as he did this, his sense of the world vanished.

"Training," Mihawk replied simply.

"Out! Mr. Roronoa is supposed to be resting and he can not do this when you are attempting to injure him! Out, I said!"

Mihawk sighed and got up, making his way towards the door. He looked back at Zoro and said one last thing before he left. "Keep practicing. The goal is to be able to hold that all the time." Then he was gone.

Zoro stared at the doorway a moment while Madam Pomfrey fussed around the bed. Zoro wasn't even sure what she was doing, Chopper at least was always doing something that had a definite purpose. Ah well.

Some time alter in the day, Aldis came back to visit. After a quick glance around the room to make sure that the irate Shichibukai was gone, he started placing den-den mushi once more.

"Why are you doing that and not this Benn?" Zoro asked while he watched the dark-haired man attach a pink den-den mushi to the bottom of a bed.

"Oh, 'e often gets me ta 'elp out," Aldis replied. "'E's dealin' with a differen' part of the buildin' righ' now, see?"

"Hogwarts is going to be covered by den-den mushi by the end of today isn't it..." Zoro muttered.

"Pretty much, yeah," Aldis replied. "Also, 'e gets me ta 'elp cuz I won' just 'ide them outta revenge like the others would."

"Where does he _get _them all?" Zoro muttered in disbelief. "Shouldn't he have run out by now...?"  
"'E 'as a stash," Aldis responded. "Whenever we capture one, 'e adds it to 'is stash."

"Okay, never mind, I don't care," Zoro said, shaking his head. Perhaps it was best to ignore the semantics with this crew, just like with his own. Zoro's expression briefly turned contemplative as once again he hoped Luffy was doing okay after Ace's death. He had _seemed _alright in the newspaper, and the fact that he tossed flowers into the crack was probably some sort of message that he was alright, but still... he couldn't help worrying about his idiotic captain. It was a habit at this point.

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft hissing sound coming from the floor near Aldis' feet. Zoro glanced at it and noticed that it was being eaten away by a viscous brown substance that appeared to be dripping from Aldis' hat. The swordsman eyed said hat for a moment before remarking, "Your hat is dripping."

"Oh, is it? Must be one o' the needles..." Aldis mused. He pulled off his hat and tipped it upside down. A stream of brown liquid dripped out of the one of the corners before stopping. "Well, the needle's empteh now..." He shrugged and put his hat back on. "I'll haveta figure out which one it was latah..."

So saying, he turned back to fastening a blue den-den mushi to another bed, completely ignoring the acid eating through the floor.

"Reparo! And you, what are you doing in here? Mr. Roronoa needs _quiet _rest!" Madam Pomfrey snapped, emerging from her office once more.

Zoro sighed softly. Everyone who came in to help relieve his boredom got chased out by the Witch of Doom... at least Chopper didn't stop him from moving around... He rolled over and winced slightly as the movement irritated his wounds. On the other hand, maybe he really _did _need to rest up for a bit.

"Fine, fine," Aldis muttered. "The Fallacious and Insensate Shenanigan Contigent needs my skills!" He darted towards the door and was out of the room before Zoro could comment on the situation.

_He _does _realize whatever that is is basically named The Awful and Stupid Prank Team, right? Whoever named their team must be having fun playing practical jokes... wait does this mean there's a prank war going on now? Please no... it was bad enough the time Usopp and Franky started one... _Zoro thought.

Another thought popped into his head, unbidden. _Hey, maybe I should join one of these teams... great practice in strategic planning! _

_ No... what am I thinking... that's stupid. Who needs strategy? Just walk up the enemy and cut them with a sword. That's what swords are made for. _

_ But I really could use the practice... that idea is going to get me killed someday..._

_ Nonsense. It always works! I'm still alive, aren't I? And why am I even arguing with myself? _

_ Because your swords are awesome and like interfering. _Now where the heck had _that _thought come from? He'd certainly never thought of his swords as _awesome_, before. In fact he tried to avoid using words like 'awesome.'

At this point Zoro could swear he could hear laughter coming from somewhere. He frowned and shook his head. _I must be imagining things. I'm bored, so that must be it. _He sighed and decided he may as well get some sleep. Within moments he was dead to the world.

_**Mihawk**_

Mihawk's eye twitched as he stared at an eager Tiern. "No," he said flatly.

"But Aldis, Benn, Bambor, and Monstar are also on it!"

"I am not joining a team that calls themselves 'The Fallacious and Insensate Shenanigan Contigent.' Who even came up with the name?" Mihawk grumbled the last to himself, already suspecting that it was Benn playing a joke on his own team.

"Benn, of course! Isn't it awesome?!" Bambor yelled, heading over. Mihawk thought he felt himself getting a headache. Why did Bambor have to yell all the time? "He said that it means the Brave and Courageous Tricksters, essentially!"

Mihawk blinked. Then he burst out laughing. Bambor stared at the laughing Shichibukai for a moment before grabbing Tiern and fleeing, thoroughly freaked out.

"I really must thank Benn," Mihawk mused out loud. "I haven't laughed like that in _ages_..." He shook his head and continued heading towards the Forbidden Forest, reaching out with his Haki as he did so, trying to figure out roughly which direction he needed to travel.

"Hey, Hawky!" someone yelled. Mihawk smoothly stepped backwards, allowing Shanks to cannonball into the ground in front of him instead of onto him. Sadly, the Yonko was back up on his feet within moments. "Want to join the Tricksters?" the excitable captain asked.

"I am not joining any side in this prank war," Mihawk stated flatly. "Out of curiosity, who else is on your team?"

"Well, there's me, of course, and Yasopp, and Lissan, and even Rockstar!" Shanks said happily.

_So Crane, Lucky, and Fangor are safe... I don't have to worry about them. Good, _Mihawk thought. _Now back to my plan to hide in the forest for the next week to escape from all this nonsense. _"Wonderful. Why don't you go plan your pranks now?"

"Thanks for the idea!" Shanks said, bouncing back across the grounds, heading towards wherever the rest of his team was.

"Hey, wanna join the Indomitable Trio?" Crane asked, walking up. Behind him, Lucky and Fangor grinned, Fangor's grin showing a discomforting amount of sharp teeth.

"I am not joining any side in this prank war," Mihawk stated again. _Yes, escaping to the forest is definitely the best idea. _

"Oh, that's a shame, because we're not part of the prank war," Crane said. "No, that's just the Tricksters and The Fallacious and Insensate Shenanigan Contingent that are fighting it out. _We're _just taking charge of showing Hogwarts how pirates do things, as there are some amateur prankers there."

Mihawk's eyes gleamed suddenly. "No one's off limits, yes?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Of course not! That'd be no fun! We plan to prank all of the staff at least once, to properly send the message, and of course any who start attacking us."

_All the staff... I can get at least some small revenge at Dumbledore! _"All right, I'll join you, but I'm not doing anything ridiculous, understood?"

"Yeah, sure," Crane said cheerfully. "Men! The Indomitable Trio has become the Indomitable Quartet! Now let's show him our secret hideout!"

_Secret hideout? Oh, what am I getting in to... _Mihawk thought as they led him away towards the Forbidden Forest.

_**In another part of the castle... **_

Fred and George both looked over the Marauder's Map that Harry, no, Mihawk had given back to them. They had come back to the castle to guard it, per Dumbledore's orders. He had never said they couldn't have some fun while they were there, and he had noticed the gathering pranking teams amongst the pirates. They had decided to show the newcomers exactly how it was done.

The pair grinned as they stared down at the groups of dots, one in the Forbidden Forest, one in the pirates' ship, and one appeared to have based themselves in some abandoned classroom somewhere. Fred and George both grinned. The time had come! The teams were gathered! It was to be a war... of epic proportion!

_**No idea where this came from... I think this fic is evolving more into a light and humorous one rather than something more serious... ah, whatever. Let it evolve! Anyway, tell me what you think?**_


	11. War Plans

_**Planning... **_

The Fallacious and Insensate Shenanigan Contingent gathered around a diagram of the Great Hall. They were in the so-called Planning Room, which was really just a dusty storage room on the Red Force that had a giant table in the middle. Lighting was provided by flickering candles as to provide the appropriate environment.

"Alright, so if you look at this you'll see that there are no rafters or beams above of any kind... this is going to make dropping things on people's heads here very difficult," Benn began.

"Can' Tiern jus' build whatever we need?" Aldis asked.

"A good point," Benn agreed.

"I can't necessarily build _everything,_" Tiern said. "If I were to, say, build a beam crossing the Great Hall I'd need a way to anchor it."

"Monstar! You're back!" Bambor shouted, interrupting the planning. The monkey had just bounded into the room. He appeared to have something in the little pouch around his neck.

Benn pulled out a note and read it over quickly. "Alright, we're gonna have to plan something else. It's been agreed: Mealtimes and the half hour before and after are sacred. No pranking during that time."

"Aww... an' there was grea' stuff tha' I could ge' up ta in tha' time, too..." Aldis said mournfully.

"_Anyway,_ our enemies are the Tricksters, that is, Shanks, Yasopp, Lissan, and Rockstar. As they have Rockstar, remember to-"

"Make sure to get a face before replying to a voice, yes, we _know,_" Tiern said impatiently. "Yasopp's a problem, though."

"Yeah, he's pretty good at hiding, sniping, of course, and more than that he's an engineering genius!" Bambor shouted.

"Yeah, I've worked together with him on multiple things before," Tiern said. "Made a few of his bullets, too, but he's made most of them."

"They're gonna try an' raid the Red Force at some poin'," Aldis pointed out. "How 'bout we make some traps for 'em?"

"A wonderful idea," Benn said. "I already have den-den mushi set up around the ship and we're currently in the middle of the lake, meaning they would have some trouble approaching, but we can set up some stuff anyway. Aldis and Tiern, you guys should get on that. Also, Monstar was able to find the Tricksters, right? So _he _knows where their base is. How about Aldis, Bambor, and him sneak down there during some mealtime or other and set up some traps?"

"A wonderful idea!" Bambor agreed completely.

"Then we have our plan. Let's get to it!"

_**In a dusty classroom somewhere... **_

"So you're saying that they're gonna try and prank us during a mealtime?" Yasopp asked.

Lissan nodded. "Yeah. I was able to tap into one of the audio den-den mushi Benn has near their Planning Room and listen in." He held up a black snail which was currently slumbering peacefully.

"Ah, I forgot your genius with these things," Rockstar said fondly.

"So someone's gonna have to stay behind?" Shanks pouted. "I don't wanna... I like food..."

"I didn't say that," Lissan said. "How about we set up some traps for them?"

"A perfect idea!" Yasopp said readily. "Hmm, these walls are quite thick... Shanks, I'm gonna need your saber, I think."

"Okay, what should I cut?" Shanks agreed readily.

"Cut a fairly large box out of this wall. Make sure the cut goes all the way through and it should be large enough for me to sit in," Yasopp said. "Making it high up would be preferable."

"Wait, but if it goes all the way through won't it show up in the next-door classroom?" Lissan asked.

"That's the point, so we could in the future build some kind of machine over there and point it through the wall or something," Yasopp said. "Beside it'll give us flexibility and an escape route other than the door. And we can always disguise the other side."

"I don't really get it, but whatever." Shanks drew Furion and leaped at the wall, cutting a fairly large section. Then he gave it a push and the stone slid into the other classroom with a loud crash.

"Okay, now we just have to disguise this," Yasopp said. "Hmm... I _should _be able to do this with the materials on hand..."

_**In a hastily-constructed treehouse in the Forbidden Forest... **_

"No, that's stupid," Mihawk said. "How would we even get it into his food in the first place? We do not have Yasopp on our team."

"Oh, I know, how about I go to dinner in my lion form? Then I change back and scare everyone! Or vice versa," Fangor asked.

"Also stupid. That just gives away one of your abilities with no recognizable gain," Mihawk said.

"Then what are we going to do?" Lucky asked. "You've called every idea so far stupid!"

"Because they are," Crane pointed out. "Just saying."

Mihawk frowned. "What we need is an alliance with the Tricksters," he said. "With Rockstar's voices and my magic we can make a fake Dumbledore while doing... something... with the actual one. Dump him in the lake or something."

"Now _that's _a good idea," Crane said. "But how would we even extend an alliance to the Tricksters?"

"At lunch, of course," Lucky replied. "The Contingent (I refuse to say the full name!) and the Tricksters formed a pact not to do any pranks at mealtimes, so we should be safe."

"And how do you know this?" Fangor asked.

"Oh, I intercepted Monstar on his way back to the Red Force. He was happy enough to let me read his message," Lucky said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Alright, so we have a plan, then," Fangor said, nodding firmly.

_**In a dark room somewhere... **_

"My Lord, the troops are prepared to attack Hogsmeade in one week's time," the Death Eater said, bowing before resuming his place in line.

"Excellent..." Lord Voldemort practically purred. "A few guerrilla attacks on Hogsmeade, and then we shall attack Hogwarts itself!"

"My Lord, the raid on Kroudanus went well," another Death Eater reported. "We managed to torch the place and get out before the Aurors arrived."

"Good, good," Voldemort murmured. _The plan is going well, _he thought contentedly. Despite the fact that the connection was more blocked than he would like, he had been able to glean that his enemies in Hogwarts weren't actually doing anything of importance. This boded well for the outcome of the war.

_**Lunch... **_

The three teams met at the staff table and settled down to eat, as was their custom. No one commented on the absence of Aldis, Bambor, and Monstar. If they noticed, they said nothing. Yasopp was not present either, and Mihawk was gone as well, having gone into the forest "hunting" or something like that.

"Oi, Rockstar," Fangor said, nudging the man's arm.

"Yeah? 'Sup?" Rockstar asked.

"The Indomitable Quartet proposes an alliance to the Tricksters for the purpose of a prank on the Headmaster," he said formally.

"Agreed!" Shanks said cheerfully. He had evidently been listening in.

"Alright, here's the plan..."

Down at the Griffindor table, Ron noted Hermione's absence but figured she was in the library or something. It definitely was not something that he needed to tell a teacher about or anything. It wasn't like she was _missing. _Neville agreed. Neither knew how wrong they were...

_**The Forbidden Forest**_

_This way, _Mihawk thought, moving between the trees towards where he could feel the powerful aura. _So either he attacks me out of hand or I challenge him, _Mihawk thought determinedly. He didn't notice the far weaker aura following him, although Yoru did.

Yoru, being the manipulating sword that she was didn't say anything. It wasn't like the being they were going to visit (alright, attack) would kill Mihawk if she asked him not to (which she could). And it would be well within her reach to protect the girl, too. If she didn't do something stupid (although the fact that she was following a Shichibukai deep within the Forbidden Forest _was _extremely stupid, she would admit) anyway...

Besides, it would be good for Mihawk if this worked out the way she thought it would. He needed to talk to the people from his previous life (or so she thought). And she was bored, anyway. She hadn't had the chance to fight anyone for too long (although admittedly Marineford _had _been fun...) And now that Zoro had been confined to bed rest for a week, if she spoke up now it was unlikely that she'd get to fight anyone any time soon.

For her part, Hermione was determined to get Mihawk to talk to her. However, the swordsman was moving almost too fast for her to keep up and she was far too out of breath to call out and try to talk to him. So she merely followed, hoping that she would get a chance when he finally arrived at wherever he was going.

Deep within the Forest, in the direction that Mihawk was heading, Kori waited patiently. _Been a while, sister, _she thought. She could most definitely feel her sister's presence moving towards her, along with what felt like her Wielder and some weak bug that wasn't even worth thinking about.

She briefly considered just calling some minions and having them deal with the intruders in her territory but decided it wasn't worth it. She did want to see her sister again after all...

_**Back with Mihawk... **_

Mihawk paused. The aura had vanished... again. _It keeps doing this, _he thought with irritation. As he was searching for it he came across another one, one that made him want to face-palm at his own stupidity. "Hermione, you can come out now," he said out loud.

Hermione came out from behind a tree. Her face was flushed and she was breathing hard. Evidently she had had trouble keeping up with his pace. "I wanted to talk to you," she said between breathes.

"About?" Mihawk asked.

"Things," she replied elegantly. "Stuff." She paused, then continued. "If you need help tracking down the ritual to send you back to your own world."

The swordsman blinked in surprise. That had not been the attitude he had been expecting. "Why would you want to help me after what happened a few days ago?" he asked.

"Because you were right," she responded. "It _has _been twenty years. We can hardly expect you to the be the same as you were before you left." She paused, then added, "I want to get to know this you."

Mihawk sighed and leaned against the nearest tree. "I... was not expecting that," he admitted honestly. "I would say that your help would be appreciated, but I already found a ritual that I can do to get us back. I only need to gather the ingredients before I can start it. The ritual itself looks like it will take somewhere around three months though, so we probably won't be leaving any time soon."

"I see," Hermione said. "Your relations with Dumbledore aren't the best, are they?"

"Why, how did you know?" Mihawk responded wryly. "No, they aren't, but for the moment it is necessary to work with him." He paused, then added, "How is Ron doing? Have you talked to him about this?"

"No," Hermione replied honestly. "He still hasn't gotten it through his head that you've changed so much." She paused before adding, "It is a little much to take in."

"Just think of me as Dracule Mihawk, and not Harry Potter," Mihawk said. "Why did you follow me into the Forbidden Forest? There are many safer ways to contact me if you wanted to talk..."

"I _tried _to," Hermione said indignantly. "But you always ignored me... I don't think you even noticed I was there half the time."

Mihawk blinked. "You know, that's probably true," he said thoughtfully.

"It _is,_" Hermione said.

Mihawk's eyes narrowed slightly, then he lunged forwards, hitting Hermione and knocking her backwards. A jet of web hit the spot where she had just been. He drew Yoru and looked around, quickly assessing where the Acromantulas were.

"Follow me, and we can get out of this," Mihawk told Hermione.

"I can fight," was Hermione's response.

"Ah, right," Mihawk responded. "Very well. Aim to clear a path to the left. I am going to charge forwards and send a few fliers ahead of me. Keep them off our backs while we retreat from their territory."

"Okay," Hermione said, although she wasn't quite sure what Mihawk meant by "fliers."

Mihawk slashed Yoru horizontally, sending a broad air blade shooting through the air in front of them. Spiders leaped out of the way as it bit deeply into tree trunks and felled them. He darted towards the opening left and Hermione followed.

Mihawk glanced over his shoulder to see that the spiders had started to pursue them. Hermione shot several exploding and bludgeoning hexes at them to push them back. Mihawk saw, however, that she was lagging, she simply wasn't as fast as he was. So he slowed and then grabbed her with his free hand, ignoring her yelped "Hey!"

The pair made their way quickly through the forest after that. The spiders seemed to give up the chase after the first few minutes, but Mihawk knew that it was just that they had left their territory. Once they entered a clearing, Mihawk deposited Hermione on her feet and sheather Yoru, glancing around briefly with his Haki to make sure that there was nothing else that was going to try and eat them.

"Hey, how did you do that?" Hermione asked.

"Do what?" Mihawk responded.

"The thing with your sword! When you slashed the air and this blue thing flew towards the spiders that cut everything in its path."

"Oh, that. It's called a flying attack. Swordsmen who are strong enough can do it," he replied. "Zoro can do them too. Ryuma certainly could." He shuddered slightly, as if remembering something extremely scary.

"Ryuma? Who is that?"

"The previous best," Mihawk replied. "I beat him to claim my current title. I nearly died in the effort, but there was a doctor on hand to keep me alive."

Hermione cast a quick tempus with her wand and winced. "I hope you know which direction the castle is in?"

"Roughly, why?"

"Lunch is almost over... I'm gonna be late to Potions unless I can get back there in time!"

"_That's _why you're worried?" Mihawk shook his head and set off through the forest. "Follow me," he told Hermione. "The castle is this way."

_**Half an hour later on the Red Force**_

"Well, I think we can say _that _plan was _not _a success," Aldis stated. He was covered with a red liquid that looked suspiciously like blood and made the students, especially the first years, run from him whenever they saw him.

"I agree! Yasopp was waiting for us! Somehow they knew we planned to attack!" Bambor shouted. He, too, was streaked with the fake blood (It was fake, right?), but also he was covered with cobwebs and looked like he had crawled a long ways through a dusty pipe to get back to the Red Force. Monstar was mostly unscathed, except for a streak of red above one eye which actually looked oddly good on him.

"Okay then, next plan!" Benn said, firmly optimistic. He was not going to be beaten by the Tricksters, no matter what!

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	12. Captured!

**_Please review with your opinion: Do you want me to take longer and post the fight scenes all at once (probably two-three chapters) or post them as I write them as I have been doing with chapters? Also, congrats to jumjalala for being the 150th favoriter!  
_**

_**Some time later**_

"And you're good to go," Madam Pomfrey finally pronounced. "And don't you be coming back here any time soon, you hear me?"

"Finally!" Zoro cheered, practically leaping out of bed in his haste to get away from the infirmary. One hand reached out and grabbed his swords along the way.

"But what if he gets lost? Is he allowed to come back here then?" Shanks asked curiously. He and Mihawk had both come to pick Zoro up, neither trusting him to get out of the infirmary on his own.

"Catch," Mihawk said, tossing something to Zoro on their way out of the infirmary. Zoro snatched it out of the air and glanced at it. It looked like a black leather wristband set with a clear gem of some kind. "Put it on," the older swordsman said. "If you state the name of a place, a beam of light will come out of the gem. You need only follow the beam and it will lead you to your destination."

"Oh, to stop him from getting lost," Shanks said, nodding his head appreciatively.

"I do _not _get lost!" Zoro protested indignantly. He put on the wristband anyway, noting how its size changed until it was snug against his skin.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Shanks said waving a hand at him. The Yonko knew better than to argue the point. "Can we go now?"

_**A few days later**_

Surprisingly, the Indomitable Quartet had not managed to pull of their prank involving Rockstar and the Headmaster. Although it wasn't really _that _surprising considering that Mihawk was one of them and kept vetoing all the silly ways to do it as he was determined that it would look like it was the real Dumbledore, at least to a point. And then there was also the problem of when to replace him.

The other two teams seemed to have fun pouring various things on each other, to the point where each team hardly left their respective bases. At least the halls were quieter, and there was no longer a chance of being mobbed by pirates (Shanks) whenever he stepped out of a room.

Then there was the fact that the Red Hair pirates were Red Hair pirates and nobody was being even remotely serious about this, so there hadn't really been anything of note happening. There seemed to be a few unexplained pranks going on, though, like that time Crane had been turned into an actual crane at lunch, or when Monstar got turned into a blinding yellow with streaks of neon pink. _That _had been awful, since Bambor had loved it and insisted on showing Monstar off to everyone. Thankfully, both those pranks had ended at the end of the day.

This was rather odd, as both pranks had occurred during meal times, when all the teams had decided that there would be no pranks in the Great Hall, and no pranks in the corridors as they tried to get to the Great Hall. And also, neither team had the magic to make those particular pranks work. It was almost as if there was yet another team in Hogwarts...

Mihawk himself had not gotten pranked yet, although Zoro once had his hair turned bright orange for the day, even though he wasn't even participating (or trying not to, anyway) Shanks had called him "Carrot-san" and tended to burst out laughing mid-sentence whenever he used that particular name. In any case, none of that was important to the Shichibukai at the moment. No, what he was doing now was of greater importance than any antics that a bunch of idiot pirates got up to.

Mihawk let out a breath as he finished painting the last line of a complicated-looking ten-pointed star. Candles were set up at each point and they suddenly blazed into life with an eerily glowing green flame. The dark red lines of the design started softly glowing as well, almost as if they were gathering energy from the candles.

Mihawk stepped back to survey the glowing design. He closed the book in his hand with a snap and replaced it in his pocket. _Now, if all goes well, we'll all be out of here in three months, _he thought.

_But things never go well, do they? _That thought was probably Yoru's, although, in the way of their communication, it was impossible to tell for certain. _Besides, if they did nothing interesting would __ever happen... _Most definitely Yoru that time.

_So you would count me finding you in that slimy old cave as being uninteresting? _He thought at her. He thought he could feel amusement emanating from her and shook his head. _Ah, Yoru, what would I do without you... _

Mihawk stared at the ritual for a moment longer and then left the Room of Requirement by the door that suddenly appeared in the air in front of him. It would lie safely undisturbed in here until it could take effect.

Several hours later, Mihawk was starting to get rather irritated. Zoro was nowhere to be found. He wasn't in his room, or anywhere within a mile (about his Haki's range) of the training clearing they'd used before. He wasn't in the castle, either.

Of the two Red Hair Pirates Mihawk saw, neither of them had seen the green-haired swordsman. Mihawk sighed and decided to go talk to Benn, if anyone knew it would be him. He hurried down to the Red Force, completely ignoring Hermione when she tried to stop him to talk to him.

Mihawk found them perusing over a sketched diagram of what looked to be a corridor. The entirety of The Fallacious and Insensate Shenanigan Contingent were there. Benn glanced up when Mihawk opened the door. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can't find Zoro," Mihawk admitted.

"That's hardly unusual, with how often he gets lost," Tiern pointed out.

"It's not that, I can't sense him either." He hesitated, then added, "Yoru can't find Sandai Kitetsu, and all the cursed swords can sense each other even when they're miles apart."

"That is... worrying," Benn admitted. "I'll go see if I can find out what happened."

The entire group headed off to Benn's so-called surveillance room, with dozens of screens and a handful of spare den-den mushi in a pile in the corner. Benn sat down in the chair in front of the screens and looked them over, quickly finding the one that was looking into Zoro's room. He tapped it and the image rewound itself, going back the past couple hours.

It stopped after a few minutes. Zoro had just woken up and was looking around, evidently bored. He apparently said something to the band, for a white beam shot out of it and he followed it, heading off somewhere. Benn froze the image. "This was about five hours ago, some time early this morning," he said.

"I knew I should have woken him up..." Mihawk muttered. "But I needed to do the next step of the ritual..."

"Do you have any den-den mushi along the hallways around there?" Tiern asked.

"No, the only one I placed there was the one in his room. Wasn't there one above the front doors?"

"Yeah, check that one!" Bambor shouted.

"Yeah, there was, but Lucky found it and removed it and I didn't get a chance to replace it," Benn admitted.

"So we have no idea where he went..." Mihawk said. "Great... just great..."

Then there was a scratching at the door. Tiern glanced at them briefly before opening it. A black hawk swooped in through the open door and landed on the desk in the corner, settling among the den-den mushi. It had blood-red eyes that watched every movement. After a moment, it stuck out its leg where it had a message attached. Aldis reached out to try and take it, but the hawk screeched and slashed at him.

Mihawk frowned and tried to take it. The hawk let him and he carefully untied it. He opened the parchment and read its contents... and his face paled even more than it normally was.

"Hehe, it recognizes another hawk," Tiern joked. "Oi, Hawky, err, Hawk-Eyes, what's wrong?"

"This... this..." Mihawk whispered, his hand shaking slightly. He suddenly turned and lunged at the bird, letting the parchment fall on the floor. The avian creature leaped back into the air and darted from the room, though not before slashing the Shichibukai's hand.

Bambor bent down and picked up the letter. When after a few minutes he still hadn't said anything, Benn snatched it from him. "Well, damn," he said after a moment, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "Damn, that's not good."

Aldis grabbed it from Benn and read it. Both faces paled somewhat and they no longer wondered at Mihawk's reaction. "Damn," they said together.

"So, what do we do about it?" Benn asked. "I presume you know what 'the graveyard' is, so what are we going to do about it?"

"Yeah, we can't just leave him," Aldis agreed.

"What are we going to do about it? We're going to go rescue him, of course," Mihawk said quietly but firmly. A steely resolve shone in his golden eyes.

"Oi, wait," Tiern said. "We can't just go storming off after him without a plan." He glanced at the letter, then said, "We have until tomorrow. Plenty of time to make a plan."

"I agree," Benn said. "Where's the rest of the crew?"

"The rest of the Quartet is in the Forbidden Forest, I can go get them," Mihawk said. He hesitated, then added, "The old coot might give us some help as well. We'll need every bit."

Aldis nodded, then said, "I'm pretty sure I know where the Tricksters have their base. I'll be back in half an hour or so."

"Alright," Benn said. "Mihawk, you go to Dumbles and tell me where to find the rest of the Quartet. Aldis go find the Tricksters and bring them here. I think its fairly obvious that the prank war is off until we solve this problem." He paused. "Can we expect any help from the students?"

"Probably not," Mihawk admitted. _Damn, if I hadn't acted so stupidly, I might have been able to get Ron and Neville and that group to help, but... oh well. _

"Then let's go and reconvene back at the Red Force in half an hour. Let's get to it!"

The pirates nodded and headed off to their respective tasks. The note fluttered to the floor and fell open as they left. It was very simple and to the point.

_ I have your lovely student. You have something I want, namely, your life. I propose... a trade. Come to the graveyard an hour after sunrise tomorrow. Your life for his. I will release him, given that you come by yourself. At the first sign of treachery I will have Bellatrix blow his head off. We wouldn't want that, would we? In case you think I'm lying... a simple spell on the hair should show that it is his. See you... unless you want him to die!_

It was signed with a snake coiled in the form of an 'S'. Attached by a sticking charm below the seal was a short lock of bloody green hair.

Somewhere above Hogwarts a black hawk let out a savage cry as it raced back to its master. The forces were gathering... and the war was shortly going to be joined by fourteen pirates whose strength could change the tide of war!

_**Somewhere else... **_

Rekvar Shirlo stared at the man he reluctantly called 'My Lord.' "Fine, fine, I understand, I'll be there, and so will my... _forces. _But I can't speak for the rest of the clan. If they show up, they show up. If they don't show up, then they don't."

"Oh, don't worry, I underssstand, my dear Ssshadowmancer," Voldemort hissed, his crimson eyes glowing. "Asss long asss you are there... not that I expect my enemy to actually try sssomething..."

"I will be there, my Lord," Rekvar said firmly.

"Good, good. Now Luciusss, I believe you were in charge of the dragonsss?"

"Yes, my Lord," Lucius said, bowing before Voldemort. "The handlers have already started to move the Ancient Wurms into position as your commanded."

"Good... what of the werewolvesss and vampiresss?"

"They will not be able to attend, my Lord," a nervous young Death Eater said, moving up to speak to Voldemort while Lucius stepped back. "They sent in missives that said they are still gathering forces."

Voldemort laughed then, a chilling sound. "Asss long asss they are there in three monthsss time, it mattersss not," he murmured. "Don't you think ssso, dear mosssshead?"

Zoro growled, jerking at the chains that held him to the wall behind Voldemort's throne. Damn, the wizards had managed to surprise him...

_~start flashback~_

_ He had followed the beam of light after saying "Where Mihawk is." Upon encountering the small village, the beam had shuddered and died and the crystal had exploded. He had started exploring the town, looking around at the various stores and ignoring the odd looks he got for his clothing and swords. _

_ Then, the town exploded. Literally. It was as if a bomb had been set off in the center, ripping apart anything nearby. Civilians cried out in terror and ran, clutching children and possessions to their chests, fleeing from whatever had set off the bomb. _

_ Zoro reached out and grabbed a random witch's shoulder. "What is it? What happened?" _

_ She looked up at him through terrified eyes. "Death Eaters!" she shouted before ripping out of his grasp to run after the rest of the fleeing wizards. _

_ "Death Eaters...?" Zoro said out loud. "Why would anyone want to eat death...? Did Mihawk mention something about Death Eaters? I don't remember..." _

_ Brooms flew overhead, mounted by dark figures wearing bone-white masks. Spells flew down from them into the masses of fleeing people and laughter echoed from them. _Why don't they fight? _Zoro wondered. _If they all fought, they might be able to win. They all know some sort of attack magic, right? _He glanced ahead of him and saw that the same masked figures were advancing through the streets. A nearby house exploded. Rubble sprayed in all directions while another house was set on fire. The orange flames rapidly spread to another house. Smoke drifted upwards and the visibility level dropped. _

_ "That's him!" someone yelled from above. "Take him alive! Our Lord commanded it!" _

_ "Yes sir!" the Death Eaters on the ground shouted. They stopped destroying the town in favor of charging towards Zoro. Spells shot towards him from the attacking Death Eaters and he was forced to defend himself. _

_ "Itoryu: __Sanjuroku Pound Ho!__" he shouted. A spiral-shaped air blade shot towards the approaching Death Eaters out of Ichimonji. It slashed apart most of the spells and the ones that reached him were easy enough to dodge. _

_ "Crucio!" an insane voice screamed from behind him. His hand moved of its own accord to Sandai's hilt, gripping and drawing the blade before he knew what he was doing. Almost like it was moving on its own, the cursed blade slashed. The Unforgivable was slashed apart and rapidly dissolved into thin air. Only then did Zoro turn around to see an insane-smiling black-haired woman advancing towards him. She wasn't wearing a mask. _

_ She cackled. Her eyes shown with insane glee. "So you can fight, huh, boy?" She sliced her wand through the air, a pair of cutting curses at him. _

_ Zoro leaped aside. The attacks carved twin rifts into the ground where he'd been moments earlier. While still flying through the air, he called out his next attack. "Nitoryu: Taka Nami!" he shouted, creating waves of air that shot towards the Death Eaters, knocking a large quantity of them over. Only a few managed to keep their feet. Bellatrix, of course, was not affected. _

_ Zoro landed and almost immediately leaped aside again instinctively. The ground underneath him exploded and chips or rock and debris flew high into the air. Zoro glanced around to find the source of this new threat. His gaze moved upwards and he saw that the fliers had started attacking him as well. _

_ "I don't want your help," the woman pouted behind him. _

_ "You may not want it," a voice answered from above. "But you need it." _

_ "I do not! Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima!" she screamed, aiming her wand at Zoro once more. The swordsman dodged the majority of the attacks, although he was hit by part of the blast from the last one. Dust was thrown up by the attacks. Zoro looked around wildly. His searching eyes could see nothing of his attackers. _At least my enemies can't see me, _he thought grimly._

_ Zoro drew Ichimonji and put the hilt in his mouth. "Santoryu: Hyakuhachi Pondo Ho!" he shouted, spending a spiraling air blade up into the air towards where he thought the Death Eaters were. He was rewarded by a cry of surprise and several bodies hitting the ground soon after. "Santoryu: Karasuma Gari!" He sent three flying attacks towards where he had last seen the woman and then quickly leaped to the side in case he had revealed his position. _

_ "Confringo! Defodio! Deletrius!" Zoro dodged the first two and instinctively slashed out at the third one with his swords before it hit him. It was slashed apart into pieces before it could do any damage to him. More dust was generated by the explosions from the spells and it was still impossible for anyone to see each other. _

_ "Hyakuhachi Pound Ho! Hyakuhachi Pound Ho!" Zoro shouted, sending off two flying attacks in opposite directions. Once again he heard cries of pain through the dust. _This stuff is almost like a spell_, he thought._ Despite all the explosions... shouldn't my flying attacks have cleared it at least somewhat?

_ "Aguamenti!" someone shouted from behind him. Zoro ducked, expecting the water stream to shoot over his head. However, there was no water stream. Instead the billowing dust thickened, solidifying itself around him until he couldn't move any of his limbs. _

Damn! _Zoro thought. I_t was a spell! Then he saw a flash of red light and thought no more.

_~end flashback~_

Zoro had been taken here then and made to watch this farce of a meeting. Voldemort was... interesting, though. He had managed to activate his Haki briefly upon arriving at the meeting and had gained an impression of the strength of the Death Eaters. For most of them, their physical strength was well below his own, but their was an impression of power that ran deeper than that, almost like the feeling someone with Devil Fruit powers gave him. If that feeling was added in, then most of the people in this hall were as strong or stronger than him.

Voldemort, now, Voldemort was strong physically, perhaps as much as Zoro. He too, held the strange impression of power and once that was added in, he could easily be considered to be stronger than Mihawk. _No matter, if I know him they'll come to get me out and Mihawk'll end up fighting Voldemort, and then it'll be sure which one is the strongest. _

All this talk of Ancient Wurms and Shadowmancers, though... it did not bode well. But then again, the force that was coming had all the Red Hair Pirates, plus Mihawk, plus whatever wizards they managed to bring. _And me, as soon as I get out of these shitty chains, _Zoro thought. At least... at least they had not gotten his swords.

He wasn't quite sure what had happened, but he _thought _that Sandai had turned into black mist and hidden the others somehow. _Never knew Sandai could do that... _The thought popped into his head, unbidden, that it was probably the fact that they were in a magical environment and Sandai was recovering his former powers, allowing him to do things like turn his sword body into mist.

_Where did that come from? _Zoro wondered briefly. _Oh, whatever. _He glanced back at the meeting and sighed softly. _With any luck, I'll get a chance to fight something tomorrow. _A bloodthirsty grin stretched his lips at that thought, and even though it was partly hidden by the shadows, any Death Eater that looked at him winced at the sight of that grin.

And high above, although above was not quite right, the demons looked down from their realm and made bets on the outcome. Of course most were in the Red Hair Pirates' favor, for how could any group of mortals not win when they had three demons of their own by their sides?

_**Review, please? **_


	13. Plans Gone to Waste

**_Since no one has commented with their opinion on the update schedule, I'll just continue posting chapters like I normally do_**

_(attack name translations)_

The day ironically dawned bright and clear. The sun was just beginning to peak above the horizon when the Death Eaters apparated _en masse _into the graveyard. Already waiting at his father's headstone was Voldemort, his bright crimson eyes surveying his followers. He had called more than half of his forces here today, just in case. You never knew with Potter, that annoying brat certainly had pulled more than enough escapades.

His Death Eaters formed two lines, one to either side of Voldemort, the most senior closer to him, the new ones farther away. Rekvar Shirlo lurked somewhere among the multiple shadows of the graveyard. Where, it mattered not. He would be there, with his forces, if it came to battle.

Roronoa Zoro was tied up with chain and deposited near a rectangular gravestone near the right line of Death Eaters. He was conscious and watched everything from underneath his bandana that he hadn't gotten a chance to remove since the battle in Hogsmeade. Bellatrix stood next to him, with her wand pointed at his head.

The graveyard was completely silent; even the birds weren't calling. There was an occaisonal soft growl or rustle of scales sliding between trees that occurred on either side where his two Ancient Wurms had been stationed. If there was battle, they would be turned loose and hopefully the chosen controllers would keep them attacking the enemy.

Voldemort's eyes surveyed his Death Eaters once more. If Potter did not show up within a few minutes, then he would have to kill the prisoner, and nothing would come of this meeting, except perhaps some fun torturing the swordsman. However he was reasonably confident that Potter _would _show up. It was just in his nature, and the few quick probes he had attempted to do with the still mostly-sealed link had revealed that it was still in his nature.

There was a sharp crack of a wizard apparating from the other end of the graveyard. Harry Potter had appeared, though his looks were indeed... _different, _as Snape had said. He was tall and confident and didn't show a moment of weakness as he surveyed the troops that had been summoned against him. Even Dumbledore might have been daunted by the forces shown, but if Potter was he hid it extremely well. He wore simple black pants and his open overcoat fluttered quietly in the wind. His plumed hat hid his golden eyes and Voldemort noted that he had come armed, his sword almost managing to dwarf its wielder.

Voldemort frowned suddenly, as he remembered that Lucius had said that the boy had been captured without his swords... despite the fact that he had been using three of them against the Death Eaters. Where had they gone? Well, even if they had been overlooked, then they were just lying in a dusty alley somewhere in Hogsmeade and that made no difference to his plans.

In the forest, a black wolf watched the arrival of Mihawk with narrowed silver eyes. Before long, he knew, it would be time to call the Pack, or what remained of it anyway. As Alpha, he could summon them and would if it came to battle. He was confident that it would; his Queen's Wielder would never let his Wielder die. He could almost smell the feelings between them, even if they were both too stubborn to admit it. His gaze turned to Roronoa Zoro, the one it had come for.

Zoro had been trying to find the end of the chain that was wrapped around his torso for some time now. It was useless, although his hands did have _some _freedom of movement, it seemed as if there was literally no end to the chain. Like it was endless. Well, it _had _been created by a spell... Zoro looked up as Mihawk started forward, walking down the aisle of Death Eaters with his head held high.

The only sound to be heard was the soft clacks of Mihawk's footsteps. It seemed as if even the world held its breath as Mihawk came to rest in front of Lord Voldemort. The Death Eaters barely breathed as they readied themselves for a confrontation. None of them thought that Mihawk had simply come to give the Dark Lord his life as was the proposed trade in the letter.

Golden eyes met crimson. Mihawk felt a powerful presence trying to invade his mind. He almost immediately felt another leaping from where it always slept and shoving the other away violently. _Thanks, Yoru, _he thought to his sword, receiving a soft hum of acknowledgement.

"As you proposed, I have come," Mihawk said quietly. Despite his soft tone, the words carried and every Death Eater (and various creatures hidden in the surrounding forest) heard his words. "My life for his, I believe that was the agreement."

Voldemort merely smirked. "Bow," he said softly, his eyes glittering.

"I fail to see how that was in the terms of the agreement," Mihawk replied just as softly.

"_Bow,_" Voldemort said again. "Your life for his? Your life is now mine to do with as I wish. In other words, if I command you to do something, do it. Or else his life will be... ended."

Mihawk narrowed his eyes slightly before bowing his head to the Dark Lord. Only his clenched jaw gave away how much he hated doing this. He thought he heard Zoro's soft gasp from off to his left. To his mind, his pride did not matter, as long as the plan worked and Zoro was rescued. _As long as the plan worked... now as soon as Zoro is released, they will attack to give the distraction needed to get me away. _It truly was a trade, though a trade of circumstances and not of lives. And Mihawk was armed, unlike Zoro.

Voldemort smirked again before speaking. "As I have promised, so shall I deliver," he said. "_Release _him, Bellatrix, from the cares of this world," he commanded. "Oh, and why does he still have his sword? Remove it, or are you all incompetent fools?!"

Some young Death Eater ran up to grab Yoru. Mihawk didn't care about that, he knew the great black sword could defend itself. His golden eyes had instead gone to Zoro. The swordsman had started struggling fiercely against his bonds; he knew what Voldemort had met.

_Damn, you idiot, thinking he'd keep his word! Fool! _Mihawk berated himself silently. He knew he could do nothing, from his position Voldemort would blast his head off before he had time to send a flying attack at Bellatrix.

Bellatrix grinned insanely and raised her wand. Her eyes glittered with mad glee. "Oh, I was waiting for this!" she half-sung. "Avada Keda-" She got no farther as a loud howl pierced the air and a giant black wolf hurled itself at her.

Mihawk felt Yoru's surprised elation a moment before the Death Eater's right hand touched her hilt. Instantly he was thrown backwards in a loud explosion. Mihawk had her unsheathed in an instant and lunged at Voldemort, knowing he had to keep the Dark Lord occupied while the Red Hair Pirates got Zoro untied. _This isn't exactly the plan... but it'll work. Where the hell did the wolf come from? _

The clearing surged into chaos as the Red Hair Pirates attacked.

_**Elsewhere... **_

Sathara jerked her slender head up, hearing the call. "Finally!" she howled. "My mate has not sounded the call for so long... I almost thought he had forgotten how!" She raised her head and sounded the ancient summoning howl to the heavens before herself dissolving into black mist and teleporting herself towards her mate.

Across the Lands of Shadow, other wolves opened their eyes at the sound of the call and repeated it, howling to the turbulent red sky before they, too, disappeared in swirls of black mist. Each appeared in the graveyard one by one until they were about fifteen. As soon as they emerged into the Human Realm, they attacked.

The Pack had finally been called to battle by their Alpha and was more than ready to fight after centuries of boredom.

_**Back to the fight... **_

The black wolf slammed its head into Bellatrix. The witch was hurled off her feet. Her breath left her in a woosh of escaping air as she struck the ground. The virulent jet of green light that left her wand veered off and smashed apart a tombstone. Splinters of rock pelted Bellatrix while the wolf easily leaped off of Bellatrix and darted towards Zoro.

Zoro stared at the giant creature who was easily as tall as him at the shoulder. The black creature growled at him and then grabbed him by virture of his chains. It bounded away from the fray as fast as it could as sounds of battle erupted behind it.

"Oi, let me go!" Zoro shouted.

"Shut up," the wolf snarled at him. "If I had a way to cut the chains, I would do so. Unfortunately I cannot wield myself. So I will take you out of the combat and one of my Queen's Wielder's friends will release you."

Twin roars burst from opposite sides of the graveyard as two Ancient Wurms surged into view. Both of them were massive things, each easily twice as tall as the tallest trees, which happened to be fairly large conifers. They had extremely thick scales and poisonous green eyes. Their tails were tipped with an almost beautiful diamond-shaped blade. They almost immediately found their targets... and attacked.

"Wield... yourself?" Zoro asked in confusion. He decided to ignore how a wolf could possibly talk and focus on what it was saying. Maybe it was a Zoan or something. Did the Red Hair Pirates have a wolf Zoan in their crew? He wasn't sure. He knew they did have a Zoan, but he couldn't remember which type.

"Yes, since I have the misfortune to be sealed in a sword, I could not exactly move around easily. It is only through the close vicinity of my Queen and the general magic of this place that I was able to manifest myself."

"Sandai Kitetsu?" Zoro asked again.

"Obviously. It is good to know that you can use that brain of yours after all," the wolf replied.

"Your Queen... Yoru?"

"Yes, she is the Shadow Queen," Sandai said. "Now shut up and let me take you to Aldis."

"Sorry, I can't let you do that," Rekvar whispered surging up from the shadows directly in front of the black wolf. He flicked his jet black wand and cast a nonverbal spell. A shadowy blast shot towards the wolf. The air around it rippled with the force of the attack.

Said wolf flicked his head to the side and tossed Zoro to his mate. The she-wolf caught him with ease and loped off in the same direction where she could see one of the pirates waiting, the one with the ridiculous coat.

Sandai Kitetsu faced down Rekvar. The wizard dissolved into shadows and attempted to chase after Zoro. "Oh no you don't," the wolf growled before dissolving into black mist. He darted through the air and slammed into the shadows. The two forces clawed and struggled at each other as each tried to surround and suffocate the other.

The she-wolf dropped her bundle at Aldis' feet then bounded back off to the fight. Aldis blinked at the wolf before remembering the more important thing: getting Zoro out of those chains. He pulled a needle of acid out of his coat and dripped some of the viscous brown liquid onto the chain. As he thought, the acid easily began eating through the metal like it was nothing.

"Can you hurry it up?" Zoro grunted.

"Give it a bi'," Aldis said. "This stuff doesn' work too fast, ya know. An' it can ea' through jus' abou' anythin', so I'm perfectly willin' to let it take a bi', ya know?"

"Yeah, yeah," Zoro grunted. Then he recalled that he didn't have his swords and frowned, shooting a quick glance in the direction of where Sandai had been. However, no wolf now existed in that spot, instead what looked like shadows and mist fought against each other.

"An'... there!" Aldis said, yanking the chains away from Zoro before the acid could touch his skin. Zoro stretched, relishing the feeling of his back popping before he looked around, wondering where he was supposed to find weapons.

"Catch, Wielder!" a voice snarled at him. He looked in the direction and thought it was one of the battling black... things. It was impossible to tell which was mist and which was shadow anymore as they swirled around each other.

Three swords came flying out of one of the swirling fighters and Zoro reached up and caught them out of reflex. They were indeed his three, although Sandai felt... dead, for lack of a better word. Like it was just an iron bar rather than a cursed sword. It lacked the customary bloodlust he had come to associate with it.

Zoro frowned. That was probably an effect of the black wolf being out in the physical world. How had Sandai done that anyway? He'd think on that later. He shook his head and stuck the swords through his haramaki before unsheathing all three and turning towards the battle.

"Ya know, the poin' of this was so tha' we could get ya _away,_"Aldis remarked.

"Yeah, but that's a _dragon,_" Zoro said, pointing to the giant Ancient Wurm behind them that was making its way towards the fighters. "Who'd miss an opportunity to fight a creature like that?" With that he turned and leaped towards it, his blades flashing in the morning sun.

Aldis sighed before running towards the battle to help out his nakama. He knew when he had lost an argument.

High up in a tree, Yasopp quickly reloaded before sighting another Death Eater and firing. It looked like the enemy hadn't realized that there was someone attacking them from above yet. That made them easy targets to pick off, especially the ones that were just sort of standing around, unsure of what to do. He shot off another two bullets in quick succession. Sadly, both targets moved more than he had accounted for and the bullets struck the ground.

_Too much interference, _he thought, reloading once more. _I'd best start using some of my area attacks. _This time when he fired, the bullet hit a Death Eater and exploded, splattering everything in the vicinity with green liquid that burst into flames the moment it contacted anything solid. _Wildfire, _he thought, _hit a bunch of them there. I'm gonna have to be careful not to use that near my allies though, _he thought, shooting another Death Eater with a grenade that exploded on contact.

_The wolves appear to be on our side so I'll leave them alone for now, _he thought. Glancing back down into the battle he noted that the Red Hair pirates had mostly spread out among their foes, doing their best to dodge spellfire while returning attacks of their own. The two dragons approaching from either side had almost reached the battlefield, though. And the things felt _tough, _if his Haki was anything to go by. Defeating them would most certainly be a problem.

"BENN!" he screamed, desperately trying to warn his nakama. The gun-wielding man did not hear him and was hit hard by a dragon's tail swipe. Luckily for him, though, he was hit by the flat side of the tail. If he'd been hit by the edge he would have been cut in half. Those things were as sharp as sword blades.

Benn flew through the air and smashed through several trees before coming to a halt. He stood up again a bit shakily, ignoring the new aches that he had acquired from the attack. Thankfully he had used Armament Haki in time. Most of his new wounds were just bruises. The dragon had managed to smash through his Haki though, which was somewhat worrying in of itself. _Just how tough are those things? _He thought.

"Toritoryu: Kuren Kuchibashi!" _(Bird Sword Style: Crane Beak) _Crane shouted. He stabbed at a nearby Death Eater with his sword multiple times. Moments later the Death Eater was bleeding from a dozen stab wounds.

"Oi, that one was mine!" Lissan yelled at Crane. The tides of battle had brought them together so that way they were almost back-to-back.

"Whatever, shut up," Crane responded.

"Don't 'whatever' me! You just stole my kill!" Lissan yelled. He ducked a dark blue spell.

"Shut up! We're in the middle of a battle!" Crane yelled back. He stpped to the side to avoid a yellow spell.

"Yeah, so stay out of my way!" Lissan yelled back. At this point the two were just standing and glaring at each other.

"Stay out of mine," Crane snapped back.

"Flipendo Duo!" someone shouted. Crane ducked as the knockback jinx went over his head to smash into a tree. Said tree slowly cracked and tilted over before hitting the ground with a loud thump. Crane breathed a sigh of relief. If he had been hit by that spell... he'd never have been able to activate his Haki in time.

"Honestly, guys," a familiar voice growled. Crane glanced up to see a large lion fighting nearby. The noble creature was doing his best to avoid spells and get in close enough to maul his opponents. His paws were already stained with blood. However the Death Eaters were giving him a wide berth now. He growled with frustration as he was forced backwards by a knockback jinx which, thankfully, didn't work too well on his thick fur.

The lion shrank into the much smaller form of Fangor. He lunged at a startled Death Eater and transformed into his hybrid version just before he made impact. His claws left a long gash across the Death Eater's face, both taking a large chunk out of his nose and blinding him.

"Fangor!" Crane said happily.

"Anyone fighting that dragon?" Fangor asked absently, gesturing to the beast on the left side with a flick of his head. "Roronoa's got the other one, but who's holding that one back?"

"No one but Yasopp," Lissan said, ducking a red spell. His fists and feet were clad in kairoseki-shod fighting gear and he seemed perfectly happy to just stand there and talk despite the fight going on around him.

"My kind of fight then," Fangor replied. "I can't get close to the Death Eaters," he said irritably. He transformed back into his full lion and leaped away through the ranks of Death Eaters towards the dragon.

Crane turned his head to yell at Lissan but he was already being carried away from him by the tide of battle. So instead he turned his attention back to the fight, doing his best to dodge spells while slashing up anyone who came too close.

Several sounds that could almost be compared to gunshots went off nearby. Crane winced. He was well aware that if that sound was focused on him he'd be dead within seconds. One of the nastier aspects of the Koe Koe no Mi._(Voice-Voice Fruit)_ Not only did it allow its user to imitate any sound, but then those sounds could be amplified and "focused" on a person, causing a very painful death. Crane mused that Rockstar was probably going to get a bounty upgrade soon, once he showed off his discovery that he could "focus" sounds on a person...

He was forced to duck a jet of fire that had come from somewhere and his thoughts were forcibly returned to the battle. _Ah, yes, the battle. That thing. _

_**Elsewhere... **_

The dragon let out an angry roar for a reason other than one of Zoro's attacks. The swordsman glanced to his right just as Shanks landed next to him. The swordsman waved at him cheerfully before turning back to face the dragon. Blood dripped from a gash in its eye ridge. "Meant to blind it," Shanks said. "Thing predicted me and I hit its eye ridge instead. I swear, it's got Obseveration Haki..."

"Whatever," Zoro said, leaping towards the creature. "Santoryu: Tatsumaki!" he shouted, drawing all three swords. The dragon screamed in fury as the attack hit it. When it ended it looked relatively unharmed, save for some blood dripping down its scales. "Thing's tough."

"It's an Ancient Wurm," Shanks replied. "Not sure how I know that, probably something Furion told me. Anyway, it's one of the most powerful types of dragons, and this one's stronger than most."

"Sounds like a challenge!" Tiern shouted from the top of the dragon's head.

"How the hell did you get up there?!" Zoro shouted.

Tiern laughed, holding onto one of the many spikes. "Easy! I jumped from a tree!"

"But its head is so far above the tree line..." Zoro muttered. Indeed it was. The dragon was at least twice as tall as the nearest trees. It reared up onto its hind legs, exposing its bright yellow underbelly and shook its head violently back and forth, trying to dislodge the pirate. Tiern merely laughed and held on tighter.

Zoro noticed something else, wherever the dragon's blood fell it started eating away whatever it fell on. "Its blood is acidic!" he shouted.

"Daha, Aldis'd love this!" was Shanks response before he charged towards the creature once more. The Wurm lashed its club-tipped tail at Shanks but the Yonko send a handful of flying attacks at it before leaping out of the way. It whipped its tail upwards and the air blades hit nothing but dirt.

"Santoryu: Hyakuhachi Pound Ho!" Zoro shouted, releasing three spiraling flying attacks at the beast's head. Tiern could fend for himself. The dragon rapidly pulled its head out of the way, belching fire at Zoro on the way. The swordsman had no choice but to jump out of the way.

A Haki pulse from Shanks made Zoro grit his teeth, even though it wasn't aimed at him. It only served to make the dragon angrier. The thundering sound of another roar echoed in Zoro's ears. _I'm gonna go deaf at this rate, _he thought.

The dragon swiped at Shanks with one clawed foot. Once again the Yonko waited until the foot was close enough before attempting to cut the tendons between the toes. However the dragon was too fast and grabbed Shanks around the waist before throwing him away in a random direction.

"Shanks!" Tiern shouted. "Bastard!" he roared, bringing his giant, multi-bladed club down onto the dragon's head. The blow barely seemed to faze the monster. It raised its right foot in front of its mouth and spat fire at it. It caught the flame in its claw. A moment later it held a glowing fireball which it then it chucked said fireball at its head.

Tiern barely leaped off in time to avoid being charred to a crisp, although his clothes did end up a little singed. He started running towards its left foot, yelling to Zoro, "Bring it down! We can't attack it when its still moving like this!"

"At least it can't fly!" was Zoro's response.

"Zoro you idiot!" Tiern yelled. "You jinxed it!"

"Whatever!" Zoro responded, sheathing all of his swords. "Itoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson!" he shouted, racing at the right leg. The dragon screamed as his shot connected on its lower leg and cut a sizeable gash across it.

"Giant's Hammer!" Tiern shouted before slamming his club into the creature's left leg, just below the knee. The dragon's leg was knocked inwards and it started to collapse, its right leg no longer able to bear its weight.

"Collapse!" Shanks yelled, popping up from nowhere and slashing at the dragon just behind its knee. His sabre cut deeply into the tendons and the dragon fell with an earth-shaking thump. Unfortunately the reprieve was short as it was back on its feet almost instantly. Zoro panted as he stared at the dragon. It seemed to have an almost limitless supply of energy...

_**Like it? Love it? Review it!**_


	14. Explosive Dragons

_(Attack translations)_

**_Mihawk..._**

"Corporis Protego," _(Physical Shield) _Voldemort said almost lazily. He flicked his wand in a summoning gesture. "Accersi Leo!" _(Summon Lion) _An immense cat leaped from the end of Voldemort's wand and lunged at Mihawk. The golden-eyed swordsman slashed and chopped it into cubes. Thankfully said cubes vanished, leaving the battlefield with much less blood and gore than it would have had otherwise.

Voldemort flicked his wand again and blood-red lines shot out of it in the form of a net, racing towards Mihawk. The Shichibukai slashed it apart with ease. The lines burst and sprayed bloody acid in all directions. It slid off Yoru's blade like water but wherever it touched the ground it started desolving rapidly. Obviously cutting the net wouldn't work.

Mihawk flicked Yoru's blade in a complicated pattern and rapidly constructed a giant stone wall in front of himself. The net hit and the acid ate through it in a matter of seconds. The stone collapsed to the ground in a cloud of dust and the remaining acid started eating through the ground.

Mihawk said nothing. It was not his way to speak in battle. Instead, he rapidly wove more magic with Yoru. A snake made out of black mist shot out of his blade and darted at the Dark Lord.

Voldemort laughed and flicked his wand. A roaring fireball erupted from the end and smashed into the snake. The construction was instantly consumed by the fire.

Mihawk grinned slightly as he heard a familiar voice. "Santoryu: Tatsumaki!" A loud roar of pain marked the statement and Mihawk realized that Zoro was probably fighting the dragon. Shanks and Tiern might also be there as well. Either way, the dragon would be occupied for long enough and would not interfere in the main combat.

Mihawk leaped to the side. Several rainbow-colored spells struck the ground where he'd just been. A pit of bubbling acid appeared wherever they hit. The swordsman glanced at it with his magic sight and spared a moment to slash it apart. Moments later the acid vanished and the ground was solid once more.

Mihawk flicked Yoru, rapidly weaving what looked like a miniature tornado and sent it at the Dark Lord. Voldemort raised his wand and shot a nonverbal stream of yellow spells into the midst of the swirling vortex. It exploded harmlessly before it could do any damage to the Dark Lord. This fight was certainly going to go on for a while.

_**Elsewhere... **_

Fangor snarled at the dragon. It snarled back. The two giant creatures faced each other for a moment before the Wurm spat a gout of fire at Fangor and the lion was forced to dodge. He leaped forwards. The dragonfire struck several gravestones and melted them away to slag.

Fangor's clawed paw lashed out at the dragon's face. The nimble creature jerked its head back just in time before striking with with needle-sharp fangs. Fangor twisted away. The dragon's teeth just barely missed the soft fur of his stomach.

Fangor landed and almost instantly spun around. He leaped back towards the dragon and ducked between its paws, heading for just beneath the stomach. The scales above him radiated heat like a furnace. He leaped upwards and sliced five lines across the dragon's belly. He dodged most of the blood but a drop landed on his back and burned into his skin like fire. His breath hissed out through his teeth and he decided that he would make sure to avoid all of the blood in the future.

Nearby, Lucky Roo smashed a meaty fist into another Death Eater, carrying him off his feet and hurling him into several of his fellows. The next instant something struck him across the back, throwing him forwards off of his feet. _Damn, I hate fighting like this, I need to pay attention to more than just the foes closest to me with my Haki, _he thought while trying to figure out what the burning pain in his back was coming from. He concluded that some kind of burning net had been thrown at him.

The next moment he heard several agonized cries from nearby Death Eaters and figured that one of his nakama had come to his rescue. "'Ere, this'll numb it," he heard Aldis say. Soothing cream was spread over the lacerations and the pain faded as the wound was numbed. "I 'ope this battle'll be over soon," he said. "Everyone's gettin' injured, an' I can' keep up with it."

"I'm glad enough just to have you," Lucky responded, climbing back to his feet. "Not every doctor has the materials to go running about and tending to their nakama in battle."

"True enough," Aldis agreed. "Please try no' to ge' hi' more, okay?" He was gone before Lucky could answer.

Aldis slipped between Death Eaters with ease, stabbing them among the way with various poisons. All the enemies here were extremely slow, although finding exposed flesh was hard with the thick robes that they all wore. What sounded like a gun shot went off right next to him and Aldis grimaced as a Death Eater collapsed, trailing blood from his ears and eyes.

"Watch it, tha' 'un almost 'it me!" Aldis yelled at Rockstar who was nearby.

"Sorry," the red-haired man said unapologetically before dodging a handful of spells. "My voice goes where I want it to go. Have a little faith, please."

"Tch," Aldis grumbled. "Devil Fruits are finicky thin's," he said. "Forgive me for no' trustin' 'em completely."

Rockstar merely chuckled and let loose several more gunshots. This time, though, one of the Death Eaters that was aimed at managed to summon some kind of full-body shield to block the sound waves. It resembled a glowing yellow dome. Thankfully it absorbed the sound waves instead of reflecting them, which might have caused everything in the vicinity to die. "Hmm, that's a problem," Rockstar remarked.

Aldis raised an eyebrow at him and flicked a needle at the Death Eater. The small piece of metal went right through the shield and struck him on the neck. He screamed as the flesh on his neck began to bubble and ooze blood and pus. "It doesn' block physical objects," he said with a smirk. "Easy prey."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Rockstar said, waving a hand at him dismissively. "Shit!" he swore as a cutting curse struck him in his shoulder. A red stain quickly spread through the cloth.

"'Ere. It'll stop the bleedin'," Aldis said, tossing a small jar to Rockstar. The pirate caught it and tore off the shoulder of his shirt, smearing paste onto the wound while dodging the spells flashing around them at the same time. He tossed it back a moment later.

"Thanks," Rockstar said.

"No problem. Jus' keep yer mind on the figh'," Aldis replied before slipping off to go kill some other Death Eaters and maybe apply some quick combat aid to someone else.

_**Elsewhere... **_

The dragon roared and spat a stream of white-hot fire at Zoro. He dispelled it with a quick Tatsumaki, spraying fire in all directions at everyone in the vicinity.

"Oi, don't use that!" Tiern yelled at him. "That fire almost hit me!"

"But it didn't," Zoro shouted back. "Where's Shanks?"

"No idea! He ran off somewhere!" Tiern shouted. "He'll be fine!"

The dragon growled again and then literally leaped at the pair of pirates, pouncing like a cat. The ground shook as it landed again and Zoro gulped. The dragon's right front foot had landed right next to him. A foot to the left and he would have been squished. Another roar sounded from above as the dragon looked around for its prey, not realizing that both of them were under its stomach.

Zoro glanced up and got an idea. Creatures' underbellies were supposed to be softer than the rest of them, right? That might not be true for a creature that flew, but the Wurm really was just a snake with legs that could spit fire. Okay, maybe a bit more than a snake but the concept was the same. It was a ground creature.

"It could crush us at any moment!" Tiern called from by the dragon's left leg.

"Not helpful!" Zoro shouted. "Shut up and attack the stomach!" He was reminded of Robin and her oh-so-morbid comments.

"Yes, sir!" Tiern said with a mock salute before crouching in preparation to jump. His hands tensed around the thick hilt of his club. Its blades of his club gleamed silver and almost seemed to quiver in eagerness for a taste of dragon's blood.

"Santoryu," Zoro muttered.

"Giant's," Tiern said.

"Hyo Kin Dama!" Zoro shouted at the same time Tiern said, "Royal Thrust!" Zoro leaped into the air while spinning rapidly, looking like a giant ball of blades as he crashed into the dragon's stomach, slicing and cutting deep into the Wurm's skin. Blood spurted out of the multiple cuts and Zoro leaped clear before any of it could splash him. He remembered the deep pits it had carved in the ground before and had no intention of letting any of that stuff touch him.

Tiern leaped upwards moments afterwards. He thrust his club upwards with all of his strength. The bladed monstrosity sank deep into the already opened wound and flesh blood spurted out. Tiern swore as a droplet landed on his arm but he managed to avoid most of it. The dragon screamed in pain and started to shake.

"It's gonna fall on us!" Tiern yelled. He turned and started running as fast as he could in order to get out from underneath the dragon as quickly as possible.

"Shit!" Zoro swore before likewise racing in the same direction. He did stop briefly to flick the blood off of his blades, though. It was high quality steel, but the dragon's blood was clearly corrosive and could quite possibly damage them if it stayed on them for too long. He noted that Tiern had already done something similar.

The two pirates cleared the dragon just in time to see the creature's legs buckle and its massive body thump down onto the ground. The glow slowly faded from its eyes as a last stream of smoke came from its open jaws.

A low rumbling sound came from its stomach. Zoro's eyes widened as he had a sudden flash of intuition. "It's gonna explode!" he yelled while frantically running away from both it and the battle, generally trying to put as much distance between it and himself. Tiern followed, the pair racing past where Rekvak and Sandai were fighting at top speed.

Seconds later, the dragon's body erupted in an immense fireball. The ground shook from the violent explosion and any grass that had been under the dragon's body was burnt to a crisp within seconds. The fighters closest to the blast were sent flying and those farther away had trouble keeping their feet. Even Voldemort and Mihawk had trouble keeping their feet.

Rockstar grimaced, then remarked to everyone in general, "Gotta remember that sound." He was forced to duck a poisonous green killing curse moments later.

Bits of burning dragon rained down on everyone nearby. Droplets of acidic dragon blood forced the fighters to pay attention to the sky. On the other side of the clearing, Fangor had been tossed on his side. He gave the dragon he was fighting a wide-eyed look and wondered if that would happen to this one too if he killed it.

Yasopp just barely managed to stay in his tree. He grimly held on to a branch with one hand and his gun with the other. If he had picked a closer tree then the force from the explosion would probably have thrown him off of his perch. He managed to swing back up into the branch and took a moment to relax before reloading and returning to the fight.

Zoro ducked a particularly large piece of burning dragon guts and leaning down to grab a piece of grass to wipe his blades with. Tiern had simply set his club down in the ground and then spun it rapidly, chewing up a fair amount of ground and spitting earth everywhere. It worked though, when he stopped his blades were completely clean.

"Where _did_ Shanks go?" Zoro asked, looking around for the Yonko. He was nowhere in sight. He was forced to duck again as yet another piece of burning dragon flesh flew by.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Tiern muttered, thinking, _He's probably gonna do something __idiotic. _

_ If he's anything like Luffy, he's going to do something idiotic, _Zoro thought, unconsciously mirroring Tiern's thoughts. "Hey, you guys have a way to get out of here, right?" Zoro asked suddenly.

"Yeah, we brought brooms," Tiern said. "Mihawk managed to upgrade them all somehow. Apparently slashing a sword at brooms makes them better, or something."

"Brooms?" Zoro raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He shook his head and chuckled a bit. "These wizards seem to conform to stereotypes remarkably well..."

Tiern laughed. "Yeah." He glanced down at the fighters and sighed. "If only there was some way to communicate to them all that we should go ahead and go... since we got you out." He paused, then added, "What was up with the wolves, anyway?"

"Well, I think that my sword turned into a wolf," Zoro said. "At least, that's the impression I got from Sandai, considering what he was yelling at me after he saved me from getting AKed."

"AKed? Really?" Tiern asked, shaking his head.

"Oi, it's shorter than 'Avada Kedavraed' and sounds far less ridiculous," Zoro said. "Can't Rockstar yell really loudly or something? Isn't that part of his powers?"

"Hmm, that's a good point," Tiern remarked. "But how to reach him?"

"Charge and slash," Zoro replied, running back into the combat in the general direction of Rockstar (that is as close to the opposite direction as he could get).

"Oi! Rockstar's this way!" Tiern yelled as he ran after him.

"Oh, he moves pretty quickly," Zoro said, oblivious as ever to his lack of a sense of direction.

_**Elsewhere... **_

"Woohoo, this is fun!" Shanks said happily while hanging on to one of the spikes of the creature he found himself on. He wasn't sure exactly how he got on said creature's back; he just remembered running away from the exploding dragon and then the ground itself had seemed to explode underneath him and then suddenly he was riding the lizard-thing.

It looked like a remarkably flat lizard with short stubby legs. And it was flying, somehow, even though it didn't have wings or anything remotely wing-like. There were these mysteriously glowing red patches of scales on its belly, though. Maybe that was making it fly? Whatever, it really didn't matter.

Anyway, Shanks was now flying away from the battle at top speed and he was enjoying the feeling of wind in his hair. "Dahaha, what should I name you?" he mused, looking down at the lizard-like flying creature. "What are you anyway? Eh, who cares." He glanced down and mused, "Oh yeah, the fight. I should probably get back to that... Oi, lizard! Take me down there!"

The flying lizard thing didn't pay any attention, so Shanks repeated his words with a strong burst of Haki in the midst. The creature seemed to shake off the wave at first, but then the constant power managed to coerce it, and it turned around to began diving back towards the combat.

_**Elsewhere... **_

Mihawk slashed apart the Flaying Curse with ease and returned a barrage of curses of his own. He was starting to tire, though, and he wasn't getting anywhere. Voldemort was able to block what was sent at him quite easily and could easily return fire with advanced spells that were harder to cut apart than the simpler ones he'd been practicing with.

So far, the only wound he'd gotten was a graze on his right shoulder when he hadn't dodged a cutting curse fast enough. It hurt, but it wasn't anything that would stop him from using that arm. There as a brief lull in the fighting around him and for a moment he caught sight of Zoro, who appeared to be making his way towards Rockstar for whatever reason.

The swordsman was making short work of whatever Death Eaters came into his path and Mihawk couldn't help but feel a bit of pride. Suddenly, a flash of burning green light arced its way across his vision and hit Zoro in the eye. The swordsman was thrown backwards through the air and crumpled into the ground. He did not move. An anguished howl pierced the air at the same time as Mihawk's cry.

"_ZOOOOROOOOOO!"__**  
**_

**_No flames, please?_**


	15. Return

Mihawk fell to his knees, that horrid green light playing in his head again and again. "Zoro.." he whispered again. _No! This can't be happening! _He screamed in his mind. The plan had gone so well... from the broomsticks that he had upgraded up to the point of battle... but now Zoro was gone. _Gone! _

He was dimly aware of Voldemort walking forwards to stand over him, but he couldn't quite bring himself to care. All he was aware of was that horrible flash of green light and Zoro falling, falling, falling...

"Pull yourself together!" a distinctly female voice yelled at him. "I can't hold off the "Dark Lord" on my own! Idiot! Stop using your eyes and using your fucking brain! He's not dead! And stop worrying about him so much! It's not like he's your fucking soul mate or something!"

_Not dead... _Mihawk reached out with his Haki, which he really should have done first and he could feel Zoro's aura. It was weak, oh yes, so weak, but it was there. He couldn't guess what Zoro had actually been hit with, but whatever it was it had not been the Killing Curse.

"Now get on your fucking feet and help me! I can't hold him off for long!" the voice snarled again. Mihawk glanced up to see a woman standing in front of him. She was dark-skinned, with black hair and black... wings? Said wings were currently crossed in front of her and deflecting every spell that Voldemort was throwing at her, though she was slowly sliding backwards from the force of the spells. She also didn't appear to be wearing any clothes...

"You feel familiar," Mihawk said shakily, standing up and tightening his grip around Yoru. Strange, the sword felt almost... empty. As if it no longer had a spirit.

"Of course I do," the woman grunted. "We've been together," she suddenly snapped open her wings and flapped them at Voldemort, dislodging tons of tiny black feathers which shot at the Dark Lord like darts, "Darkness Storm! For over a decade! Stop using your eyes and use your brain!"

"Y-yoru?" Mihawk asked.

"The same," the woman grunted. Her body suddenly dissolved into black mist and dove towards the ground at a startlingly fast rate. Mihawk blocked the fireball that suddenly flew towards him with his sword (he could hardly call it Yoru now), slashing it apart to so many magical threads. "Ask questions later. Now shut up and fight!"

Mihawk decided to ask how she was talking when she basically nothing but mist later and lunged towards Voldemort instead, slashing and slicing in what almost looked like a dance. Yoru constantly swirled around his feet, during her best to trip him or otherwise impede him.

Shanks dove towards Zoro on the back of his flying lizard-thing. He had seen the green-haired man fall, but also knew that he was not actually dead, merely unconscious. Someone had to get him out of the crush of Death Eaters before one of _them _noticed and actually offed him. He landed beside him and slung the man over his shoulder before leaping back onto his mount. He dropped Zoro across the creature's back and commanded it to go back to the skies.

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" Rockstar literally roared like a dragon. For a moment, silence reigned before the Red Hair Pirates started making their way towards where they had stashed the brooms. Mihawk, however, was caught in his fight and there was no way that he would be able to break free. If he tried the Dark Lord would happily shoot a killing curse at his open back.

Yasopp fired off a few more shots before grabbing his broom from where he had stashed it beside him. Miracle things, these. He leaped on and soared out above the battle, firing down when he could. The Red Hair Pirates, for the most part, had been able to disengage from the combat and were now fleeing towards the broom stash. Fangor, however, was still occupied with his dragon.

The two creatures raoared at each other before lunging forwards, each tearing at every bit of flesh they could reach. Fangor yowled as the dragon bit his foreleg before returning the favor and managing to open the dragon's shoulder to the bone with a slash of his clawed paw.

"Fangor!" Yasopp yelled, diving towards him. "Time to go!"

Fangor looked up and roared in acknowledgement. He leaped up into the air, turning back into a man midair. Yasopp reached out and grabbed him, pulling him onto the broom before soaring into the sky. Bambor had also managed to get airborn with Monstar on his shoulder. The man was bleeding heavily from a wound to the shoulder but he was still able to pilot his broom effectively.

Now all the pirates had reached the brooms and were busy mounting. Unfortunately, the Death Eaters had realized what was going on and were unshrinking their own brooms, preparing to go after the fleeing pirates. Apparently they had come prepared in case something like this happened.

Mihawk was stuck, however. He had no opening to get away from his fight and as far as he could tell there were anti-apparation wards over the whole graveyard. "I can carry you!" Yoru shouted at him, her mist form abruptly shooting towards him. Mihawk nodded to acknowledge her and she formed hands out of her mist, grabbing him around the stomach a moment before black wings formed. She lifted off into the air, carrying Mihawk after the others.

Sandai Kitetsu was also still clashing with Rekvak. He glanced up at Zoro and made a snap decision. He raced towards the lizard-thing as fast as he could, darting through the air in his mist form. He could feel the Pack was still doing their best to harry the Death Eaters on the ground but he could also feel that they were starting to get heavily wounded. He would have to send them back soon.

Black mist thumped into the so-called cursed sword that was currently being held by Shanks and his link with the Pack vanished. The wolves let out one last howl and disappeared in swirls of mist, heading back to their homeworld to lick their wounds and wait for such a time as their next summons would happen.

The pirates were all airborn now and speeding away from the graveyard towards Hogwarts. However, most of the Death Eaters were now mounted and pursuing them. Fortunately, the remaining Ancient Wurm was not actually capable of flight and was not chasing them. Aldis was busy giving as much emergency medical care to whoever needed it as he could. The pirates as a whole had gotten pretty badly injured. Wizards were bad opponents for them, with all the long-range attacks.

Shanks was the most uninjured one of the lot, as he had quickly figured out how to slash apart magic and did so as much as he could. Also, he was fast and good at dodging all the attacks that came his way. Even Yasopp had gotten a bit damaged when a Death Eater spotted him and started firing spells at him.

Fangor, on the other hand, was probably the most badly injured. Aldis said that he thought that Fangor had broken or bruised one of his ribs and his left arm was a mangled mess. He also had what appeared to be a bloody pit in the middle of his back. Nothing that Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix, though. Probably.

"Get ready to dodge!" Rockstar shouted. _Wait... I wonder if I can focus my voice into the air in front of the Death Eaters and actually push them back? I think I read somewhere that loud enough sound can move objects... with the power of my Devil Fruit that might actually work. _Rockstar turned and then roared as loudly as he could, imitating the roars of the Ancient Wurms that he had heard recently.

The sound was concentrated and focused onto the block of rising Death Eaters... and they were pushed back! It wasn't far, but it was far enough to slam them into the ground and basically distract them for a few minutes. Far enough for the pirates to gain a sizeable lead.

"Nice, Rockstar!" Shanks yelled.

"How the hell did you do that?!" Bambor hollered.

"A new manipulation of my Devil Fruit!" Rockstar responded cheerfully.

"You're due for a bounty raise," Benn remarked. Rockstar merely laughed.

"If the marines do raise my bounty, then I look forwards to seeing what it is."

Mihawk, complete with his extremely weird flying apparatus, pulled up beside Shanks. "Any idea what happened?" he asked.

"None," Shanks responded. "He's unconscious and his eye is bleeding a lot, that's all I can say. It almost looks like his eyeball was cut in half, though..."

"Madam Pomfrey will figure it out," Benn said. "For now, let's just focus on getting _back _to Hogwarts. Rockstar's given us a substantial lead, but the Death Eaters can still catch up."

"What's up with the mist? And how did you sprout wings?" Shanks asked curiously. "Did you eat a Devil Fruit somewhere and not tell me?"

"No... this is merely Yoru," Mihawk replied, although he still wasn't quite sure what the heck was going on with the swords. He was pretty sure he'd seen a giant wolf dissolve into black mist and then merge with Sandai Kitetsu, too. And then there were the other giant wolves that had arrived to help them... the swords were definitely odd beyond what could be expected of cursed blades. Oh well, that was something to worry about once they got back to Hogwarts.

Mihawk abruptly went into a short dive, dodging the red spell that flashed above his head. "They're attacking!" Shanks shouted before drawing Furion.

"No duh!" Yasopp yelled at him before shooting a bullet that exploded into a fireball into the Death Eaters' midst. Mihawk had never sheathed his sword, so he asked Yoru to turn him around mentally and then sent a flying attack into the Death Eater swarm.

The wizards parted around the blue air blade, almost all of them managing to dodge it. It did, however, hit one, more inexperienced Death Eater and sweep him off his broom. Mihawk shot off another few air blades at them and glanced back at the rest of his party briefly.

He grimaced slightly as he realized that only Yasopp and Shanks would be able to assist him with dealing with the Death Eater swarm. Rockstar might be able to do something, but he looked exhausted. Everyone else didn't have long range attacks, or, in the case of Aldis, was busy going around and patching up wounds.

_No use worrying about it now, _Mihawk thought. He paused, then started to weave a complicated spell with his sword. Mist rose around them and blanketed the sky, hiding their position. The pirates managed to keep track of each other via Haki, and could even tell where their opponents were, but the wizards would (theoretically) have trouble finding them.

Rockstar, however, was lagging. Mihawk flew back to where he was and told him to use Haki to keep with the group.

"Well, you see, I don't exactly know Observation Haki yet..." Rockstar mumbled, rubbing his spiky red hair. "The others are still trying to teach me, see... I can do it, but its spasmodic and my sense disappeared shortly before the battle began."

"I see," Mihawk muttered. "Follow me, then." And so he was able to guide Rockstar back to the group and keep him with the rest.

Some time later, they burst out of the mist and could see the distant shape of the Forbidden Forest looming ahead of them. Well, Mihawk could, the wards worked on the non-magical members of the group and made them see nothing out of the oridinary. He took the lead and headed towards the wards of Hogwarts. Once they got there, they would be safe from Death Eater attack.

Unfortunately, they had somehow not managed to lose the Death Eaters, who burst out of the mist only a few minutes behind the pirates. Mihawk noticed that a few of them were flying without brooms or wings or any other noticeable lifting apparatus. This included Voldemort who started firing off spells the moment he saw them.

"Shit," Yasopp growled. He spun his broom around, shouldered his gun and fired. The bullet burst open and a tightly compressed net flew out. The net managed to encase a few Death Eaters, sending them crashing down to the ground below as they tried to get out of the sticky threads. Yasopp then fired a few more bullets which turned into fireballs and felled a few more Death Eaters.

Shanks released a random burst of Conqueror's Haki at the group before sending an Iai flying attack at them. Like before, the Death Eaters mostly managed to avoid it and they didn't seem fazed by the Haki.

Mihawk shot off a few more flying attacks at them. "Darkness Storm!" Yoru shouted by his ear and he saw needles of dark matter fly past him, aimed at the Death Eaters. A few of the wizards fell from their brooms, covered in the dark needles, but most of them managed to dodge the flurry.

Two more wizards fell backwards off their brooms for no discernible reason. Mihawk caught a flash of a silver an instant before another Death Eater was felled and correctly assumed that Aldis had started throwing his needles.

_Almost there, _Mihawk thought. Voldemort had started moving faster than his minions and at his current speed he would catch them before they managed to reach the safety of the wards. Mihawk hesitated, then made a snap decision. _Take me to Voldemort, _he told Yoru. _I'll face him. _

"Fool," Yoru hissed in his ear. "I will slow him. I can not die while my sword form lives, so take good care of that and I'll return shortly." The swordsman barely had time to blink before Yoru hurled him through the air and then darted towards Voldemort, forcing him to summon a shield in order to block her.

Tiern dove after Mihawk and pulled him up onto his broom. The swordsman nodded thanks to him.

Benn shouted, "Everyone! Full speed ahead! Get behind the wards!"

The Red Hair pirates all managed to pull some extra speed out of their brooms, even the ones with two riders. The wards loomed ahead in Mihawk's magic sight, a massive network of twisting threads that surrounded the Forbidden Forest and castle in an immense dome.

Spellfire flew around their ears as they passed through the web. Mihawk barely caught a glimpse of spells flying between Yoru and Voldemort before they were through and safely hidden.

From there, the flight to the castle was considerably calmer, although no less hurried. They had to get the wounded members of the crew (almost all of them) medical attention and they had to do so quickly. Aldis thought that if they couldn't get the castle and a doctor in time then they might have to amputate Fangor's arm. He kept such thoughts to himself, however, right now they would not be helpful.

The group practically crashed through the doors to the Great Hall. Apparently they had interrupted lunch, for the Hall was full of students which were all staring at the bloody and exhausted party. Fangor had outright slipped from his broom and was now barely conscious. "Doctor..." he groaned before he passed out.

Aldis slipped from his own broom, grimacing slightly as he put weight on his left leg. Blood droplets spattered the ground as he waved his arm at the wounded behind him. "Isn' there a doctor in this damned place?! They need 'elp! Now! I can' deal with all of 'em!"

Madam pomfrey almost immediately came hurrying forwards, levitating those who couldn't walk and leading those who could to the infirmary. When they reached the sterile room, she guided the injured pirates to beds and started rapidly checking them and Summoning potions from her cabinet.

Mihawk sank gratefully on to a bed with a grimace at his own weakness. His left leg had a rather nasty burn above the knee and it felt good to be off of it. _Idiot, for letting him hit me, _he berated himself.

"Aw, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself," a smooth, feminine voice said. Mihawk glanced up to see Yoru in her angel form walking across the room. She _did _look a bit the worse for wear and she seemed to be favoring her left leg, but overall she seemed fine. "I _told _you I would be fine. It worked out, didn't it?"

"That does not keep me from worrying," Mihawk said irritably. "Where would I be if my partner died on me?"

Yoru chuckled. "I _told _you, I _can't _die." She waved a hand at the Black Sword which was lying beside Mihawk on the bed. "Not unless that gets destroyed, anyway, and it's made out of the toughest metal wizardry can make."

"Just what are you?" Mihawk muttered.

Yoru chuckled again. "I'll tell you later. I gotta," her form seemed to blur and shift as if she couldn't keep it up, "rest now." So saying she dissolved into black mist and plunged into the blade lying beside Mihawk. He only had to rest a hand on it to tell that its spirit had returned.

It wasn't long before Aldis came over to him, wanting to see his leg. He moved aside the tattered remains of his pants and whistled softly upon seeing the nasty burn. He pulled a jar of white cream out of his trenchcoat and started smearing some of it onto the burn. "What'd ya do ta get _this_?" he asked.

"A fire curse," Mihawk replied, relaxing somewhat as the cool cream numbed the wound and took away the pain. "How long until I can get back on my feet?"

"Ya should be able ta start walkin' around withou' damagin' the wound further in a day or two. As long as ya apply this cream every day, then it'll 'eal in a week or two. Don' strain yaself and you'll be fine," Aldis said professionally.

"One of the things I like about you is that you don't insist that your patients stay abed until their wounds are fully healed," Mihawk remarked.

Aldis laughed at that. "'Ey, when sailin' the Grand Line ya need every available hand, and keepin' one of your bes' fighters in bed is jus' stupid."

"True enough," Mihawk agreed. He glanced over at the bed next to him and saw that Shanks had deposited Zoro there. Madam Pomfrey was currently casting diagnostic spells over his eye. "How is he?" he asked her.

"He'll lose the eye," Madam Pomfrey said. "There's nothing I can do to save that, unfortunately. He'll have a scar there, too. But it's nothing life-threatening, he'll live, if that's what you're worried about."

Mihawk's closed his eyes as he felt a wave of relief flow over him. He didn't show it, of course. "I will have to teach him how to fight with only one eye, then," Mihawk muttered. "What was he hit with?"

"Some kind of high-powered cutting curse, I think," Madam Pomfrey said. "Amazing that it didn't cut his head in two, actually. It's almost as if his head turned to steel or something."

_Steel, eh? _Mihawk thought. _Or subconscious Haki. Life-threatening circumstances can do wonders for such powers. If there's one good thing that's come of this, it's that it'll be easier for him to use Armament Haki after having manifested it on his own, however accidentally. _"And Fangor?"

"He'll also live, although it'll be quite some time before he'll be able to use that arm again," Madam Pomfrey replied. "It will heal in time though, and the damage to his ribs and back is nothing that I can't fix."

Mihawk barely noticed a slight prick of pain on his upper arm and by the time he did it was too late. "What do you think you're doing?" he muttered, already feeling his limbs completely relaxing and his body falling into sleep.

"Puttin' ya ta sleep," Aldis replied. "Ya need it."

Mihawk would have had a few choice words to say to that, but he was already unconscious.


	16. Demon-Sword

_**I do not own Bleach**_

_**The Twins... **_

"So where were they, do you think?" Fred asked his brother.

"Who knows? They just all disappeared..." George said.

"And came back extremely injured," Fred agreed.

"You know, I don't think they really-"

"Noticed our prank attempts."

"I think they were busy-"

"Pranking themselves at the same time."

The Twins glanced at each other and sighed simultaneously. "And I thought turning mosshead's hair orange was such a good one, too..." Fred muttered.

"Well, we're just gonna have to-"

"Try harder, then."

_**Elsewhere... **_

Yoru was facing a moral dilemma. On the one hand was the promise that she had made to her lover so long ago. And on the other hand was the fact that she knew Mihawk would be exceptionally angry at her if she went through with this. She didn't know what to do. She was certain that the arrival of the pirates would change the outcome of the war for the better, but they would most certainly be quite upset with her, and they might not even agree to fight in the first place.

But her lover needed her, that was quite plain from what she could see through the psychic link they shared. His Wielder would soon be older enough to draw him out, and said Wielder would also soon be thrown into an immense war, one which her lover needed help with.

At last, she made her decision. Mihawk and the others could handle it. Getting Mihawk to agree shouldn't be too hard. As for Zoro, he liked fighting enough that the thought of all the interesting opponents this particular Human Realm and accompanying universes could offer that he should agree quickly enough. The only question was whether or not she could pull Shanks and his crew into it with them.

On the other hand, they could pop back into their world whenever, so time really wasn't an issue, and their help would be invaluable... however she couldn't really ask Furion to do this. It wasn't _his _promise, after all. Argh, why did things have to be so confusing?

Yoru sighed to herself again. Things had been so much simpler when she was just a Demon Queen. Perhaps it would be simpler just to ask them about it upfront. Yes, that's what she'd do. She closed her eyes and waited for morning to come.

_**The next day**_

Aldis had released all of the pirates from bed despite Madam Pomfrey's protests. Well, except for Zoro, who was apparently still recovering from both the curse and his use of Haki. Or something like that. Aldis had managed to convince Madam Pomfrey that he should get the final say, since he was technically their doctor and knew them and their metabolisms better.

So now everyone was sitting in a random clearing in the Forbidden Forest. Yoru was reluctantly facing them, ready to explain about the whole Demon Queen thing.

The air suddenly chilled noticeably and a second being stepped out from among the trees. As their Haki told them that she was not going to attack, the pirates, for the most part, just watched her curiously.

The newcomer seemed almost to embody winter. She had shaggy white hair and an almost white face, with curious pale purple eyes that seemed to be the color of shadows on snow. She had a set of pure white-feathered wings that drooped around her body. She was wearing what was basically a one piece bathing suit.

As was Yoru, for that matter. Yoru was only actually wearing clothes because Mihawk had insisted. She didn't really understand the point when it was a perfectly nice temperature outside, but had gone along with it, forming a similar garment out of black mist.

"Sister," Yoru greeted the newcomer.

"It has been some time," the woman said, her voice as soft as falling snow.

"Thousands of years," Yoru agreed. "Why are you here, Sister?"

"I came to help you explain," the woman said. "Having an unbound Demon around might make things make more sense for them."

"But why are you in a Human Realm at all?"

"I was bored," the woman replied with a shrug. Yoru sighed and shook her head.

"That is always your excuse."

"It is a good one." Then, she turned to the Red Hair pirates and said, "I am Kori, the Snow Queen. I am Yoru's sister, though not by blood. I hear that we have some explaining to do." She smiled then, and walked off to the edge of the clearing, sitting gracefully on a tree stump. Her every movement seemed inhuman and Mihawk noticed that her footprints left frost on the grass, although it did not disturb them otherwise.

"Where to began?" Yoru murmured. She sighed softly, then took a deep breath. "There is another world, apart from this one, called Rakash, or the Demon Realm. That is where I and my kind live. We do not all look the same, and most of us do not even look remotely human. Kori and I are exceptions to that rule.

"In any case, thousands of years ago the demons entered a Human Realm. Which one is not important, the only important thing was that they had magic, well they call it "reiatsu" or something like that, but it was magic. Anyway, I and a few others got sealed away into the forms of swords by their magic. Luckily, our fellow Demons were able to escape with most of us back to Rakash. There, there was this big argument about what to do with us.

"However, there was some freak accident of magic, we still don't know what happened, and all of the Demon-swords, as well as one other experiment were thrown from Rakash and ended up in your homeworld. The Demon-swords were intelligent, and some of them, like myself, were powerful enough to blast away humans who they did not want wielding them.

"Humans called us Cursed Swords. I myself ended up in a dirty old cave in a swamp somewhere on the Grand Line and would have remained there had not Dracule Mihawk come along. I chose him as my Wielder, which had some interesting effects that I did not realize at the time, such as giving us the ability to communicate mind-to-mind.

"In any case, once we got sent here, I was able to pull in power from the environment and started to become powerful enough to come out of my sword prison and have a physical shape, as you see now." Yoru gestured to her body with one hand. She paused for a moment before continuing. "I called the Red Hair Pirates here, by Furion's suggestion, as I did not believe that you could handle this on your own." The last was directed to Mihawk. "For that, I apologize." She spoke directly to Shanks, then.

"It's fine!" Shanks said cheerfully. "It's just another adventure." His crew didn't quite agree with the idea that being thrown into another world could be called "just another adventure" but they nodded and agreed among themselves that they didn't really mind. The thing with time between the worlds meant they could go back to whenever, and it wasn't as if they would exactly be missed. All they were doing these days was sailing around the New World anyway.

"There is something else," Yoru began with a slight quiver in her voice. She firmed her resolve bfore continuing. "The Demon-swords that could not be rescued and sent back to Rakash remained in that Human Realm. Over time, they too chose Wielders, and such the first Shinigami were born. These so-called Shinigami had a somewhat different bond with their Demon-swords, which they called Zanpakuto's.

"Eventually, they made their own Realm, called Soul Society, and took it upon themselves to guide the dead there. However, in the process of leaving their home Realm behind, they accidentally killed themselves, and from then on all the Shinigami were, in fact, dead.

"This is important because one of those Demon-swords was my lover, the King of Shadows. His bond was such that his spirit would essentially be passed down the family line. In any case, he and his current Wielder are going to fight in an immense war that could theoretically destabilize three worlds.

"He has asked for my help in this. He has seen with his mysterious Prevision, a weird gift that was granted him upon his Ascension into demonhood, that this war could theoretically completely mess up the balance between worlds, and if that happens the Multiverse will be destroyed.

"So, I ask for your help in this. I can not Wield myself, that much is obvious. Please, instead of heading back to your own world right away, head to Soul Society and stop Aizen before he destroys the Multiverse!"

Mihawk shrugged, then nodded. "You have stood by my side these long twenty years, I will stand by yours now," he said simply.

"We'll go," Shanks said cheerfully. "It'll be a fun adventure! And it's not like we're needed anywhere."

Benn chuckled and shook his head. "To try and change Captain's mind at this point is pointless. I guess we're in this together."

"I don' mean ta spoil the party, bu' shouldn' we take care o' Voldimor' first?" Aldis asked.

"Yeah, you're right," Yoru agreed. "The ritual can still be tweaked at this point, but either way it will need three months to complete. Interestingly enough, I'm fairly sure he's planning to attack Hogwarts in three months' time, so we _will _need to take care of him."

"How do you know this, Sister?" Kori asked, speaking up for the first time.

Yoru shrugged. "I took the liberty of using the link my Wielder has with Voldie and looking into his mind. The information was right there for me to see."

"Your dabbling in the mental magics is going to get you killed some day," Kori remarked, shaking her head in disapproval. "You should leave mental magics to the Mental Faction and work on your own Shadow Magics."

"You always say that, but this time I have gained us some valuable information," Yoru countered. "Would you not say that that is a good use of the Mental Magics?"

"Either way, I want to be by Zoro's side when he awakens," Mihawk interrupted. "As for the rest of you, go off and do what you do."

"Do what we do?" Tiern asked, raising an eyebrow. He chuckled. "Well, I suppose that is a pretty good description."

The pirates slowly trickled out of the clearing, mostly heading off to their respective teams' bases. Yoru and Kori headed off into the forest somewhere. Mihawk remained standing in the clearing for a long moment before heading back towards Hogwarts in the direction of the infirmary.

Half an hour later, he was sitting by the green-haired man's bedside. He looked oddly peaceful while he slept, despite the bandages winding their way around half of his head. He had bandages around his torso as well. Apparently he had bruised his ribs or something like that.

_Why... why do I care so much about you? _Mihawk wondered to himself. _Why did I feel so relieved when I learned that you were not dead? I haven't know you for _that _long, not really known you, and even now there is so much I don't know... and yet I don't want you to die. More than that, I already care about you in the way that I care about Shanks, moronic as he is. More, even. _

Mihawk sighed softly to himself and leaned back in the chair, watching the man who was the source of so much confusion for him.

Perhaps an hour later, Zoro's eye fluttered open. He lifted his head to look around and saw Mihawk in a chair nearby, with Yoru across his lap. The Shichibukai was watching him intently, almost as if he was searching him for answers. It was... unnerving, to say the least.

"I am glad that you have awakened," Mihawk said.

Zoro tried to push himself up to a sitting position, but winced at the pain in his ribs and stopped. _Where did that come from? _He wondered briefly. _Oh yeah, the dragon got me with its tail sometime during the fight. I guess I didn't notice the pain. _His eye throbbed, too, he realized. He reached up to his face with one hand and felt the bandages there. "What was I hit with?" he asked.

"Madam Pomfrey says that it was most likely a high-powered cutting curse," Mihawk stated. "You would be dead right now if you had not subconsciously activated Armament Haki. To be precise, the cutting curse would have sliced your skull in half."

"Thanks for the imagery," Zoro muttered, shifting into a more comfortable position. "How long until I can get back to training?"

"A day or two, most likely," Mihawk replied. "Madam Pomfrey mostly repaired the damage to your ribs and the magic merely requires more time to work. As for your eye, she says that you'll be able to take off the bandages in a week at most. She says to do so once it starts to itch."

"How is it? My eye, I mean," Zoro asked.

Mihawk eyed him for a moment before saying, "It is no longer usable. The eyeball itself was cut in half and there was some damage to your skull around the area. Madam Pomfrey could repair the bone, but not the eye. You will most likely have a scar there."

"I see," Zoro said. "Guess I'll just have to get used to it then."

"Zoro," Mihawk said in a somewhat odd tone of voice. The swordsman glanced up to see the Shichibukai looking at him with that penetrating golden gaze of his again. "I'm glad you're alive." He paused, then added, "And please try not to get yourself killed any time soon. It is... nice to have nakama again." With that he stood up and left the infirmary.

Zoro stared after him, too stunned to call after him. _Did he mean... that he considers me his nakama? _he wondered. He remembered what Shanks had told him and wondered if Mihawk considered even Shanks to be his nakama. His statement seemed to imply that he did not, or perhaps that they had been separated for too long and that he hadn't had anyone to confide in for far too long.

Zoro stared at the ceiling for a long time before falling back into a restless slumber.

_**A day or so later**_

Mihawk walked back into the infirmary. Zoro blinked up at him, half-expecting that the Shichibukai had wanted to talk to him about something relating to his puzzling statement the day before. However, he simply said, "You are well enough to continue training," and then turned around, leaving Zoro to follow as he would.

The swordsman got up and grabbed his swords, hurrying after the older swordsman. He slipped the three swords through his haramaki as he went. His ribs had stopped paining him; evidently whatever spell Madam Pomfrey had used had worked.

He stumbled to a halt as sudden information smacked into his brain. He caught glimpses of a conversation with the rest of the pirates and two tall women who moved with inhuman grace. After a moment the torrent subsided and he was able to sort out the information.

_So the cursed swords are demons? _He wondered. _I'm guessing Sandai is responsible for giving me all this knowledge. _

_ Of course. Who else? Neither Shusui nor Ichimonji has access to such information. My Queen passed it to me and told me to pass it on to you once you were well enough. _The thought was definitely not his own, and after a moment he identified it as being stained through with the presence that he had come to associate with Sandai Kitetsu.

"You coming?" Mihawk called over his shoulder.

"Ah, right," Zoro replied, hurrying to catch up. Before long, the pair had reached the Forbidden Forest and moved into it a short ways to the clearing where they had trained before. Mihawk stopped in the center of the clearing.

"So, basically I need to teach you how to fight with only one eye," he said. "And the best way for you to learn is by experience." As he spoke, his right hand reached behind his back as if grasping something that was hidden there. Suddenly he drew forth a short katana and lunged at Zoro, crossing the space between them with ease.

Zoro barely drew two of his katana in time to block the attack and was rapidly pushed backwards. He set his feet and managed to stop his backwards slide before slashing at Mihawk with one of his blades. The Shichibukai leaped backwards, allowing Zoro time to fasten his bandana around his head and draw Ichimonji and place her in his mouth.

"Oh, try to use your Haki during the battle," Mihawk added as if it was an afterthought.

Zoro gave him a glare. "I don't need you to tell me that," he said before lunging forwards with an Oni Giri.

Mihawk blocked the attack with his katana and then broke the lock by withdrawing slightly and slashing at Zoro's legs. The swordsman was forced to jump backwards.

For a moment the two swordsmen simply looked at each other, sizing each other up and their defenses. Then Mihawk lunged forwards, feinting at Zoro's chest before ducking behind him, and kicking his legs out from underneath him, and suddenly he was on the ground with a blade at his throat.

Mihawk withdrew and remarked, "_Watch_. If you use your Haki that won't happen."

Zoro grunted in acknowledgement, standing once more and attacking. Mihawk dodged to the right and swung at Zoro's shoulder. The pirate shifted away, Mihawk's blade passing less than a centimeter above his skin, ripping through the cloth of his shirt. "Not bad," the Shichibukai acknowledged as they separated again.

"Santoryu," Zoro muttered as he lunged forwards, "Toro Nagashi!" He deflected Mihawk's blade, forcing it upwards with his two hand swords while slashing at Mihawk's stomach. The Shichibukai shifted to the side, turning in a twisting motion that completely dodged Zoro's attack. Then, he brought he struck around one of Zoro's blades with his own in a twisting motion. The pirate managed to keep his grasp on his katana, but only barely. Mihawk lashed out with his foot, attempting to trip him again.

Zoro leaped backwards before the attack could connect. He continued skidding backwards until they were once again at opposite sides of the clearing. Mihawk sheathed his blade then suddenly darted forwards, rapidly unsheathing his sword as he struck. Zoro brought his two hand katana up to block and gritted his teeth at the force of the impact. He could tell one thing for sure, the Shichibukai was perfectly content with injuring him and injuring him badly. Of course, it wouldn't have been a fight if he wasn't.

And so, life went on. Up above (or not so above) money changed hands as the results of the Demons' bets showed up. Deep within the Forbidden Forest, two sisters talked for the first time in millenia. Somewhere across the Gap, Zangetsu waited for the day that he would be awakened by his Wielder and used in the great war that was to shake the Multiverse itself. In the Room of Requirement, runes pulsed with a dark red light as they gathered energy to send the pirates off to a slightly different destination.

And in a dark hall, Voldemort waited, gathering his forces and energy. He would strike at Hogwarts... on Beltane. And on that day would be the birth of a new era, _his _era. And Yoru simply smiled and combined forces with her sister. The day of departure for the pirates shifted ever so slightly... until it, too, rested on Beltane. Cleanup after fights was so _messy, _after all.

The date of the final clash between the Dark and the Light (and the Grey pirates) had been set. No matter what happened now, the world would be changed forever on Beltane.

_**End of Part I**_

_**It will probably be a bit longer until the next update. I'm not really sure where I want to go from here, so it's gonna take me a bit to think of more things to happen. Also, I would like to say that if you spot problems in my story in anything at all—from grammar to characters or attack names—don't hesitate to point them out. I'm not gonna bite your head off. :P**_

_**Anyway, please review**_


	17. Dueling Again

_**To Cahib: I promise that there will be no more Bleach in this story (other than perhaps a few references to Zanpakuto by the demons) until the sequel (or if I decide to just continue in the same story, until Part 3, in 20-ish chapters) Well it's possible I'll do an epilogue in the Bleach world and in that case there will be a little bit there but other than that the rest of this story will be completely Bleach-free. **_

_**One day later**_

Mihawk stared down at the book and smiled slightly. A triumphant gleam entered his eyes and he nodded to himself. _Yes, this is it, _he thought. This spell would allow him to defeat Voldemort. Now he only had to figure out how to cast the spell with a sword. If his suspicions were correct, though, this spell was complicated enough that it could not possibly be cast with one blade. He would probably end up having to rely on Zoro to deal the final blow to Voldemort, simply because he used more swords.

"Mihawk," Hermione said. The swordsman glanced up from the dusty tome to see the bushy-haired girl glaring down at him. She looked upset about something and he briefly wondered what it was.

"What?" he asked.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" she hissed. "I could have helped you!"

Mihawk blinked, genuinely confused now. "With what?"

"The rescue! Of Zoro!" she snapped.

"..." Mihawk had indeed forgotten about her, he admitted to himself. After Dumbledore had refused him help _"Dear boy, this is obviously a ploy by Voldemort to get defenders out of the castle, and I simply can't allow you to go" _he had assumed that he wouldn't be getting any assistance from the wizards. "My apologies," he said. "Dumbledore refused to help and I assumed that I would get no help from wizards."

Hermione's attention suddenly switched from that to the book in his hand. Apparently thick dusty tomes from the depths of the Hogwarts library were very good at grabbing her attention. "That's extremely Dark soul magic! Why are you researching something like that?!"

"It is the only way to kill Voldemort or at least the only way to kill him without going through a lot of unnecessary trouble," Mihawk replied.

"... I see," Hermione said. "But that spell literally rips the target's soul apart! Why is something like that the only way to kill him? Surely there must be a better way?"

Mihawk was saved having to explain by the arrival of Shanks who was somehow managing to look extremely pathetic despite his age. "Oi, Hawwwky, I'm bored..." he whined. Hermione stared at him for a moment, still unused to his incapability to be serious.

"And what do you expect me to do about it?" Mihawk asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Fight me!" Shanks suggested. "It's been _ages _since we last fought! And anyway, I'm just as strong as I was then!"

"..." Mihawk stared at the Yonko then abruptly grinned slightly. "Why not? Aldis is keeping Zoro from training for a few days and Yoru has been whining about how she wanted to fight something but didn't have the strength to do it on her own all day."

Shanks grinned and was on his feet and out the doors within moments, no doubt heading down to the school grounds. Mihawk sighed and shook his head, likewise standing and sticking the book inside his coat. "I suggest that you do not follow," he said before following the Yonko.

Hermione, of course, followed as well. She wouldn't miss up an opportunity to see those "flying attacks" again, as Mihawk called them.

Mihawk emerged out onto the grounds a few minutes later. Shanks had already drawn Furion and was waiting for him. The Shichibukai reached back and grasped Yoru's hilt, feeling the familiar buzz of energy that meant she was in fact inside her sword body.

There was a sudden burst of flames around Shanks and Mihawk blinked in confusion. Where was the fire coming from?

_That's Furion, _Yoru told him directly. _He's one of the Commanders of the Fire Faction. He's also quite lazy, which is why he didn't come out in the fight before. He's almost certainly taking the chance to talk to Shanks directly before the battle. He and I... were rivals back before we were sealed. _

_ How can talk to me directly now? _Mihawk asked her. _Even when you were whining earlier all I got was a general feeling of it coming from you._

She gave him the mental equivalent of a shrug. _I've gained enough power so that way I can change the feeling of your thoughts to make it seem like it is my thought. In actuality all I am doing is manipulating your thoughts like before, but you don't notice because I've exerted power upon them to change them. _

_ I do not see how the technical explanation matters in the slightest, _Mihawk told her before returning his attention to Shanks. The fires had vanished and Shanks slipped into a ready position. He thought he felt Yoru laugh before all of his attention was needed on the fight as a wave of Haki struck him instants before Shanks lunged forwards. Hermione swayed on her feet but managed to stay conscious.

Mihawk unsheathed Yoru and blocked the strike, using a two-handed grip. He pushed and shoved the Yonko backwards, hurling a couple fliers at him, and sprang forwards. Shanks had quickly landed and recovered and then leaped at Mihawk. The two swordsman met midair, the force of their swords clashing sending wind swirling around them. A moment later a giant crater formed in the ground underneath them, complete with cracks spreading away from it in a sun-like pattern.

The swordsmen disengaged and landed on opposite sides of the crater. "You haven't worsened," Mihawk remarked.

"Heh, of course not," Shanks replied. "I may have lost an arm, but that doesn't mean I stopped training."

The two swordsmen lunged at each other once more, steel ringing on steel each time their swords struck each other. Waves of Haki raced throughout the battlefield every so often in an attempt to distract Mihawk. The ground shook again as two of their flying attacks met in the middle and exploded. After watching a few minutes of this, Hermione took cover in Hogwarts' entrance hall.

The Twins, meanwhile, were most disappointed by this fight, because it meant that they couldn't safely get onto the Red Force in order to set up some pranks that they had been meaning to try.

_**Early the next day**_

Shanks and Mihawk were still going strong, although each was bleeding from a handful of small wounds. Shanks was limping slightly from a wound to his leg, but it was nothing that was going to stop him from continuing.

Deep furrows and craters marked the once pristine Hogwarts grounds. Students were afraid to leave the relative safety of the Entrance Hall to head down to Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures classes. Finally, someone went and got Dumbledore while the rest merely looked on, wide-eyed, at the fight happening before them.

The old wizard walked confidently down towards the fighting swordsmen. The next moment he had to dive out of the way to avoid a flying attack that would have taken off his head had he not moved. Neither swordsman seemed to notice them and they just kept fighting.

"Idiot, get off the battlefield!" Benn yelled from the Red Force. The entirety of the Red Hair Pirates were also there, contentedly watching the fight. Zoro was there as well, as Aldis had taken charge of dealing with the minor wounds he received from Mihawk basically every day. Aldis had insisted that he take a few days off the training schedule to rest, and he had reluctantly complied. He had refused, however, to spend those days in bed.

"Unless you want to get killed!" Bambor added at the top of his lungs.

"Neither will notice you right now," Rockstar agreed.

"Righ' now, they're only focused on their opponen'," Aldis finished. "They literally do no' know tha' you're there."

"Stop this nonsense at once!" Dumbledore yelled at the fighters, apparently deciding to ignore the more seasoned pirates' advice.

A small stream of delicate snowflakes wrapped wrapped around the old man, and carried him to the Red Force where he was gently deposited. The tendril then disappeared back into Kori's hand. A soft laugh reached Dumbledore's ears. "It would be best if you did not interrupt them," Kori said quietly. She was wearing white robes this time, thankfully. She still forgot the clothes a lot. Apparently in demon culture clothes were not necessary, and most demons had the wrong body shape for wearing traditional clothes anyway. "Sister would hardly stop at killing you, especially with her Wielder's current feelings towards you. Furion would kill you just to make Yoru angry at not getting the kill."

"She's right," Tiern said. "You'll only get hurt."

"I am the Headmaster of this school, and this duel is stopping this school from functioning as it should!" Dumbledore said firmly.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Fangor grunted. His right forearm was swathed in bandages and rested in a sling across his chest. "Even if I jumped down there in my lion form right now, that fight would not stop. They'd just continue around me."

"You're _no' _goin' ta do tha', though, as it would be pretty much suicidal," Aldis said with a warning glare at Fangor. Fangor smiled innocently and gave Aldis a wounded look.

"Once those two start, they don't stop for anything," Lucky agreed. "I've _never _seen those two stop before a fight was completed. Well, not unless Rockstar plays on Shanks' major weakness."

"Of course, if something really bad happened, like an attack or something, then they might stop," Yasopp said, "But for one old man yelling at them? Dream on."

"If Garp yelled at them they'd stop..." Crane muttered.

Benn chuckled. "True enough, that, but neither Garp nor any of his crazy family are in this world, thankfully. And anyway, Garp would be more likely to grab some rice crackers and watch."

"Benn you idiot! You've jinxed it now!" Tiern complained. "Now one of them is going to show up! And with our luck it'll be the Fist! Or Dragon... and then he'd misunderstand and blast us with his powers for summoning him!"

"Nonsense," Benn said lazily, waving a hand at him. "And even if the Fist or Dragon did show up, we could probably talk either of them out of attacking us. Or Zoro could anyway."

"Oi, what do I have to do with Garp? Or Dragon? Last I checked I don't have any relation to either of those people." Zoro spoke up.

"Well, you're on their grandson/son's crew, so you might be able to convince either one. Or something like that anyway. It would be worth a try at least!," Tiern said.

"Somehow, I don't think that would matter very much to Garp, considering he'd just attack. As for Dragon, what would he gain from attacking a Yonkou?," Zoro asked.

"We'll make a tactician out of you yet!" Benn said cheerfully, draping an arm around Zoro's shoulders. The swordsman ducked out from underneath said arm, giving him a glare as he did so.

"And how long will it take for this fight to be 'completed'?" Dumbledore said, actually managing to make the pirates pay attention to him for once.

"I dunno," Benn said. "It _has _been ten years since they last fought, after all. I think their longest battle took a couple days, and the shortest was only a couple hours."

"It's completed when it's completed, ya know?" Aldis said with a shrug. "I'm actually hopin' tha' it'll take a while, as I won' have ta deal with the injuries for a bi'. They always manage ta woun' each other pretty badly."

"How can you act so calm about this?" Dumbledore said in disbelief. "Two of your friends are out there, fighting and wounding each other!"

"Well, for us older members, that is everyone 'cept for Rockstar, Aldis, and Crane, have all seen them fighting before. They did it quite regularly before Shanks lost his arm ten years ago," Benn pointed out.

"'Sides, we got a doctor here, so what's the worst that can happen?" Crane said.

"Idiot, now something really bad is gonna happen and it's gonna be all your fault," Lissan said.

"Oi, how would it by _my _fault?" Crane snapped.

"You jinxed it. Birdbrain."

"What, you superstitious? Lis-bo."

Yasopp ignored the fighting members with long-practiced ease. "In any case, it'll probably be a while."

"Just sit back and watch the show!" Bambor shouted.

"Yeah, the Red Force is safe," Tiern added. "They won't damage the ship no matter what. They're holding back anyway. As long as no one enters the immediate space around them they'll be fine."

"Holding back?" Dumbledore said in disbelief.

"Yeah. Ever since the kids showed up, Shanks has stopped using his random Haki bursts and neither of them is really taking the fight seriously. They're more passing time than actually fighting."

"I'd give them another couple hours," Fangor remarked. "Hey, Rockstar, you'd better get cooking."

"Yeah, I guess," Rockstar said, heading over to the kitchen.

"Oi, don't strain your shoulder!" Aldis yelled after him. "It's not healed completely yet! An' neither is your leg! So don' stan' aroun' too much!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine," Rockstar called over his shoulder, waving his hand dismissively.

"I jus' don' wanna have ta use up my medical supplies uselessly," Aldis said. "I already need ta go inta the forest an' see if I can find anythin' there tha' migh' be useful."

"I'll go with you," Fangor volunteered.

"Sure, though if we haveta figh', ya won' be goin' inta your lion form, alrigh'? Ya need ta keep your weigh' off tha' arm."

"Duh, it hurts to put weight on it," Fangor said.

Dumbledore coughed, reminding most of those present that they had strayed quite a bit off topic. Bambor looked at him curiously. "Are you getting sick?!" he asked. "Aldis can probably help you out if that's the case!"

"I'm not getting sick-" Dumbledore began.

"Are you sure? Some life-threatening illnesses start with a single cough. Then before you know it you're coughing up your lungs!" Lucky said. "And then, you'd be dead, and then you wouldn't be able to eat any more meat! I mean, think of what a terrible tragedy that would be!"

"As bad as if sake suddenly stopped existing..." Tiern said mournfully.

Benn facepalmed. "Why do we always come back to the sake and meat?" he asked the world in general.

"Because they are the Substances of Life," Tiern said solemnly.

"Yeah... right... certainly impossible for me to forget that fact with you guys around..." Benn muttered.

"Ya know, I think I'm gonna take a leaf outta 'is book," Aldis said, pointing at Zoro, before promptly collapsing. When Bambor poked him, it was revealed that he was merely asleep.

"Oi, why're you asleep?! Wake up!" Bambor yelled in Zoro's ear. The swordsman merely shifted his position slightly and went right on sleeping. Bambor started poking him again, but this time the swordsman reacted. His hand snapped out and grabbed Bambor's and he muttered, "Eat from your own plate..." before releasing it.

Bambor snatched his hand back and glared at the swordsman. "_My _hand!" he muttered.

An eery cackling interrupted them. It appeared to be emanating from the kitchen. Dumbledore would have gone over to investigate, but the Red Hair Pirates (that weren't arguing or sleeping) just ignored it, for the most part.

"What is that infernal noise?" Dumbledore asked, wondering if it was a usual phenomenon on the pirates' ship.

"Oh, that's just Rockstar," Benn said casually. "He's just using the wrong voice. Give him a sec, he'll find the right one in a few minutes."

A moment later the cackling changed to a low and threatening growl before abruptly switching to the gentle pattering of raindrops. Then Rockstar's actual voice was finally used. "Food'll be ready in about an hour," he called.

"Woohoo!" Bambor cheered. Monstar leaped onto his head and started dancing while slamming a knife and a fork (where did he get those from anyway?) together.

"Where'd he even get the cackling from?" Yasopp asked.

"I'm not sure... I think Aldis was just doing a really good impression of an evil person..." Benn said thoughtfully. "You know how he does that from time to time..."

"Eh? Did someone say my name?" Aldis asked sleepily, raising his head and glancing around briefly. "Oh, no monsters." He promptly collapsed back on the deck, snoring softly once more.

"Well, there _are _monsters in the Forbidden Forest... hey do you think they'd taste good?!" Bambor asked excitedly.

"Hmm... depends on what kind of monster," Fangor replied. "If they're, like, giant ants and insects that wouldn't taste good at all. But giant lions taste quite good, and so do dinosaurs, if you remember Little Garden."

"Mmm... Little Garden...!" Bambor said dreamily. "Now _there _was some fine meat...!"

"Meat is fine wherever!" Lucky said. "But you're right, dinosaurs _do _taste exceptionally good. And the giants were quite friendly, too."

"They had good sake, too!" Tiern added.

Benn rolled his eyes, _Back to the sake and meat, _he thought. _Why does it always come back to this? Oh right, it's practically impossible to avoid with these guys. _

"Hey, Fangor, isn't it technically cannibalism when you eat any kind of cat?" Yasopp asked. "I mean, since you share the same species and all..."

"No, it would just be lions," Benn said. "A tiger and a lion aren't technically the same kind of animal, so that would be fine. But with lions..."

"But I'm not _actually _a lion," Fangor protested.

"You still turn into one and spend an inordinate amount of time generally lazing around o the figurehead in your lion form!" Bambor pointed out.

"That's different! Just because I enjoy basking in the sun doesn't make me a lion!"

"Another common argument..." Benn muttered in the background. He was, of course, ignored. He glanced over to where Crane and Lissan were continuing their fight. The pair had started actually fighting physically so Benn headed over to break it up. Two whacks later, both pirates were holding their heads and apologizing. "No physical fighting aboard the Red Force," he said sternly. "That just makes extra work for Tiern."

"Yeah!" Tiern agreed. "Last time you guys got into an actual fight it took me ages to repair all the damage!"

Rockstar stuck his head out of the kitchen and took a deep breath. "FOOOOOOOD!" he roared as loudly as he could. As he now had the Ancient Wurms' roars in his arsenal, that was quite loudly indeed.

"Did you have to shout quite _that _loudly?" Tiern muttered with his hands over his ears. "I think if you got any louder my organs would start to liquify..." Rockstar didn't reply as Bambor and Fangor had already leaped through him to get to the food. Most of the rest of the crew were now struggling to get through the tiny door at the same time. Benn and Yasopp shared glances before waiting patiently for the struggle to cease.

"Oh yeah, you know that weakness I mentioned earlier? _That _is the one thing that can stop their fight." Benn said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Shanks and Mihawk.

"What is it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Rockstar's cooking," Yasopp replied with a grin. "Oi, Aldis." He nudged the doctor with his foot.

"Hmm? Wha'?" Aldis asked.

"Food, and you're going to have two people to patch up very soon," Benn answered. He walked over to Zoro and likewise nudged him. The swordsman blinked awake fairly easily, despite having managed to sleep through Rockstar's roar. "Food," he said simply.

"Oh..." Zoro said before getting up and wandering away from the group.

"This way!" Yasopp yelled, pointing to the mass of pirates still attempting to get through the doorway.

"Oh, the itching in my eye distracted me," Zoro said, randomly coming up with an excuse.

"It _should _be itchin'," Aldis said. "Tha' means it's healin'. If it weren' startin' ta itch by now, I'd be worried."

Zoro grunted before eyeing the mass of pirates. "I think I'll just wait..." he muttered.

"Don't worry, Shanks'll be here soon enough," Yasopp said with a grin. He glanced over the side of the Red Force to see Shanks making a beeline towards the boat as fast as his legs could carry him. Mihawk followed at a somewhat more sedate pace. Both had blood dripping from various wounds, but both seemed equally content to ignore their injuries. They had already sheathed their swords.

Dumbledore stared down at the mess that was now the Hogwarts grounds and sighed. It would take a _lot _of spells to repair all the damage that had been dealt to the ground. There was hardly a square inch of grass that had not been overturned. Craters and deep gouges marked the majority of it, but there were also curiously-shaped indentations and multiple round holes.

The next moment Shanks leaped aboard the Red Force and dashed across to the kitchen. He slammed into the mass of pirates at the door and managed to knock them all into the dining hall.

"At leas' le' me patch ya up!" Aldis yelled after him. "You're gonna injure yaself more!"

Shanks laughed. "Food is more important!" he replied through a full mouth. Aldis groaned and shook his head.

"I would not object to your services," Mihawk said, likewise springing aboard the Red Force. He spared a glare for Dumbledore before heading to the dining hall. "After I eat, that is."

Aldis groaned again and Benn patted him on the back. "Cheer up," he said. "Neither of them are too badly injured and they weren't fighting for _that _long, all things considered. They're both monsters, besides. They'll be fine."

Aldis sighed and spared a glance for Dumbledore. "You'd best be getting off the Red Force," he said somewhat apologetically. "Mihawk doesn' seem ta like ya very much fer some reason, and I doubt wha' 'appened a few days ago made 'im like ya more."

Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgement then glanced over the side of the boat. He cast a levitation charm on himself and floated through the air to the bank. Then he turned and headed back to the Entrance Hall to inform the students that it was safe to go to class now.

**_Like it? Love it? Review it!_**


	18. Perona

Sarah hissed softly to herself. Her hatchlings were held safe within her coils and everything was as it should be, yet... she couldn't stop this feeling of unease. Her muscles tensed briefly, then realized as she stared up at the night sky. Instinct told her that soon this peaceful environment would be disturbed, but she couldn't think of any reason why that would be. The Forest had always been a safe haven for her kind; indeed there were many nests that existed in the Forest. So why was she so worried?

She sighed again and glanced down at her hatchlings. They were almost ready to leave the nest, and probably would soon. The tradition was that once their colors changed for the first time, then hatchlings were sent off to start a life of their own.

Sarah didn't want them to go. It wasn't that she would feel lonely after they were gone, though she most certainly would, it was more that she was afraid for their safety. Terrified, even. Her instincts had never led her wrong before.

A lone howl pierced the night and she jerked her head up, quickly scanning the area around her for danger. She found nothing and relaxed once more. _All of the denizens of the Forest have been unusually active lately, _she reflected. She'd even seen a few of the elusive Nekomata running about. She'd heard rumors, too, that the Snow Queen had left her lair for the first time since she had arrived reputedly thousands of years ago, although who knew if that could be believed? It was said, too, that the Acromantulas were starting to leave their territory and go exploring further for food and resources.

_I am not the only one who feel so uneasy. _The thought did not comfort her, for if others also thought that a time of great peril was coming, then perhaps one truly was.

_A storm is coming, _Sarah thought. _A storm that could destroy the balance of nature in the Forest forever. The masked men, the ones the centaurs call Death Eaters... they will be the source of this trouble. I know it, though how I could not say. _

_**Kuraigana Island**_

Perona was beyond bored. Both Zoro _and _Mihawk had disappeared two weeks ago and there was nothing to do. The food supply was starting to run low, too. "And there's no cute animals here!" she screamed at an unforgiving gloomy sky.

Perona scowled at nothing in particular. At least when Zoro and Mihawk had been there she had had some company, as bad as it had been. Now that they were gone... She sighed and floated over the gloomy forest. Ah, such gloom! So pretty... But still... _Bearsy... _she thought. _If only you were here... I'm so lonely! _

Then she had an odd thought. _What if I can find them? Like track their souls or something? But I can't go too far from my body... maybe I can send my ghosts out to find them! _

"Negative Hollow!" She summoned four ghosts and _sent _them to find the souls of Zoro and Mihawk. It was a handy aspect of her Devil Fruit that she'd only recently discovered. If she had used a Negative Hollow on a person before then she could send Negative Hollows to find that person. Luckily she had used her powers on Mihawk... once... which resulted in him trying to kill her. She had only barely gotten away from him, and that only by hiding in the forest with those _nasty _monkeys until he calmed down.

Perona closed her eyes and opened them as that of her ghosts. Strangely enough, they appeared to be going up... and up... and up...

After about an hour, the ghosts were still going up, although now they appeared to be traveling through a black void, which was rather odd, since weren't there supposed to be stars up there? Suddenly, they passed through a wall of some kind and Perona was looking out on a very different scene.

Two of her ghosts circled around Mihawk and two circled around Zoro. They both appeared to be in a dining hall of some sort and she instinctively drew back when she saw _the _Red-Haired Shanks sitting at the end of the table. _So they're with his crew? _Perona thought. No one had noticed the circling ghosts overhead yet, thankfully. She glanced around the room and noted that everyone had bandages in various places. It looked like one of them had actually broken his arm or something, because his arm was in a cast that was hanging in a sling.

She also noted that both Mihawk and Shanks had multiple untreated wounds, although mostly they just seemed to be scratches. Shanks had significantly more than Mihawk. Both were just ignoring them and continuing to eat. Apparently they thought food was more important...? Whatever.

With a bit of focus, she sent three ghosts out of the hall to go exploring while one remained in the corner to watch the pirates. The three quickly burst out of the wood and soon she was looking down on a ship that was sitting in a lake. Nearby was an imposing castle and a dark forest. She liked the look of the forest far better than that of the castle. The castle was far too bright and cheery, and the atmosphere in general was far too bright and cheery, since it was the middle of the day. _It's too sunny! _she complained to herself. _How can people stand it? This light burns my eyes!_

What looked to be a line of children were making their way towards some greenhouses near the forest. Perona frowned as she looked over the grounds. It looked like a great battle had taken place here with how many craters and rifts marked the ground. There were even a few scorch marks!

There was an old man walking around the grounds waving a stick. Wherever he waved the stick the furrow or crater disappeared to be replaced by green grass. _Interesting, _Perona thought. _Some kind of Devil Fruit? But where _am _I? _

Perona went higher and soon encountered a barrier. She wasn't sure exactly what it was as she couldn't really _see _it, as such. It was more a vague impression she got of golden threads stretching over the castle and grounds to form a dense net that her ghosts could not go through. Perona frowned to herself and decided to go and explore the forest. It would be more interesting, anyway.

Before long she concluded that the forest was full of extremely weird creatures. She had caught sight of a herd of centaurs, giant spiders, and even a horned snake! A striped lion slumbered peacefully in one section while a lizard crawled around in a fire in the next. Everywhere she went there was something new to see.

As an experiment, she tried piercing a spider's body with her Negative Hollow just to see if it would work. It did, the spider slumped to the ground in an extremely depressed state. _That's good, _she thought. _There should be nothing in this world that can resist my powers!_

Perona returned her sight to her body and opened her eyes. She was looking out onto the gloomy forest once more. This time when she closed her eyes she envisioned her ties to her Hollows. They were extremely close and extremely far at the same time. It made no sense. It was as if they were just below her and on the other side of the world at the same time.

Perona frowned, then wondered if she could try and follow them. If they were really that close, then they might be within her range. She turned and ran into the castle to find a safe place to stow her body for a while. She'd have to return every so often to do things like eat and all, of course, but she still wanted to try following her Hollows.

However, when she tried to leave her body something very unusual happened. Her body floated as well as her soul! She frowned to herself and landed on her feet like she normally would, then tried floating again. She attempted to go through the wood but couldn't. _So it seems at least that part is still working normally, _she thought. But now she could attempt to go to where her Hollows were and bring her body with her!

First, though, she headed back to the balcony and located a Humandrill. Moments later, one of her Negative Hollows pierced its body and recorded its spiritual signature. Just to be safe, she had it go through a few more. That way she could find her way back without having to rely on Zoro or Mihawk getting past first. She had to pause at this point. Apparently lifting her body was a lot harder than just lifting her soul, because she was already starting to feel a bit tired when normally she could float around for hours without starting to feel any kind of tiredness.

Then she floated upwards and away, heading towards where she could feel her Hollows. On the way, she considered why she was able to fly with her body now. _It might be because this is the first time I've sent my Hollows so far away, _she thought. _Or it might be tied to figuring out how to track things by their spiritual signature. I haven't tried leaving my body since I discovered that, so it could theoretically be that I've just unlocked new powers of my Devil Fruit. _

Perona stopped thinking about it. It made her head hurt. Instead she concentrated on flying.

_**An hour later**_

After she'd been flying through that weird darkness for about an hour she came to the barrier that her Hollows had pierced with ease before. Only she couldn't quite get through it, no matter how much she shoved. It gave, but wouldn't let her through. So she tried getting through at different angles. It didn't work.

Next, she tried to push against it until she couldn't push anymore, and then she changed her trajectory so she was moving to the side. It worked! She was through and swooping over the castle she'd seen before through her Hollows' eyes. The three ghosts that she'd left near the top of the golden net were waiting for her. Together they swooped down towards the grounds.

Perona noted that all of the scarring that she had seen before was gone and they were now as pristine and green as they'd ever been. She hated it. All that bright emerald green made her eyes burn. _Why, or why can't this place be gloomy? _She mourned. At least the forest was nice and dark.

She closed her eyes and reopened them as the ghost while her body floated high up in the air. The pirates appeared to still be going after the food, although most of it had been eaten by now. No one had seen her ghost yet, or so she thought. She reopened her eyes back in her body and started diving towards the boat to get some answers about where they were.

_**Benn**_

"Captain, eat from your own plate," Benn said for the umpteenth time, knocking away Shanks' hand. He knew he shouldn't have decided to sit next to his captain... Oh well. It came with the same dangers as sitting next to Lucky, which he usually did, so he was beyond used to it.

Benn winced as the sound of screeching metal reached his ears. Sometimes he thought that Rockstar did that on purpose... a moment later the sounds changed that of a whip whistling through the air. Where had he gotten that one?

Finally, Rockstar found a voice that he could actually talk in and spoke up. "Lucky, you do know that Aldis put something in that meat you just ate, right?"

Lucky stared at his plate. "My meat! How could you touch my meat!" he yelled while shaking Aldis furiously.

"I'll ge' ya for this..." Aldis said weakly as his head snapped back and forth. Finally he jabbed a needle into Lucky to make him stop shaking him. Unfortunately for the fat man, the needle he picked was one that contained a powerful hallucinogen.

"Ah! The worms! They're everywhere!" Lucky screamed while brushing at himself. "Get them off! Get them off!"

Aldis leaned over and stabbed the hallucinating pirate with the antidote. Then he said, "I didn' put anythin' in your mea', I swear. Rockstar's framin' me! An' I didn' know ya was afraid o' worms..." The last was said in a slow undertone, so that Lucky didn't hear it.

"Me? Frame someone? Nonsense!" Rockstar protested. "I would _never _do such a thing! Why, that you can even suspect me, ah, it wounds me!" He clutched his chest and staggered about dramatically until Fangor helpfully stuck out a leg and tripped him.

"You're welcome," he said to the rest of the pirates. Then he turned to Aldis. "Are you _sure _I can't go into my lion form? Not even for a little bit?"

"Stop complainin'," Aldis said wearily. "Zoans 'eal fas', yes, but it 'asn' been long enough for ya ta start puttin' weigh' on your arm. So stay ou' o' your lion form 'cause I'm no' gonna 'eal ya again if ya transform before you're ready!"

"Fine, fine," Fangor grumbled. At the other end of the table, Lissan and Crane had started arguing again.

"Cannibal," Lissan remarked to Crane.

"Eh?" Crane asked in confusion, still holding onto the remainder of a bird leg.

"You're eating your own kind!" Lissan said.

"Dahaha, he has a point," Shanks broke in.

"See? Captain agrees with me!" Lissan said, nodding wisely.

"That's not necessarily a good thing..." Benn muttered, but everyone ignored him. He did have a point though... was it a good thing to have Shanks agree with you?

"Just because my name is "Crane" doesn't mean I can't eat birds!" Crane snapped.

"No fighting on the ship," Tiern broke in before they started attacking each other.

"Spoilsport..." Lissan muttered.

"Look at it this way. If you break something because of a fight, you fix it, because I don't wanna have to end up fixing half the ship when you destroy it," Tiern said matter-of-factly.

"Fine..." Crane muttered.

"Oi, leave my food alone!" Zoro snapped at Lucky who had decided that the swordsman would be an easy target.

Lucky reluctantly relinquished his hold on the soup bowl and scowled, staring around the table to try and find a new target.

Zoro gave him a half-hearted glare. He should have known that he would encounter the same food-stealing habits at the Red-Hair Pirates' table that he did at his own crew. Previously, though, he'd been eating in the Hogwarts hall and had been somewhat protected by the rectangular shape of the table. Now, at a round table with everyone facing everyone else, his plate was a target for anyone who thought that it would be easy to steal from him.

"Hey, guys," Benn said. "What's that?" he pointed at the bobbing Negative Hollow in the corner of the room.

Zoro blinked at it. Then he groaned. "Not her..." he muttered.

"I believe that is a Negative Ghost, one of the ghosts that Perona can produce," Mihawk said, speaking up for the first time since he had joined the pirates at the table. "It appears that she has found a way to cross worlds and is somewhere in Hogwarts." He took another sip of wine after finishing.

"Don't let her ghosts touch you," Zoro said. "They make you feel all pessimistic... about everything."

"I wonder what happens if I touch it?" Shanks asked curiously. He stood up and walked over to the bobbing ghost while Benn facepalmed. He reached one hand up and was about to touch it when the ghost abruptly moved away from his questing fingers towards the door.

Benn twisted around in his seat to look at the door to find that it had been opened. A girl with long, pink pigtails and an umbrella (It wasn't even raining!) stood there. Well, floated actually. Three more of the ghosts circled around her head and the one in the corner joined them.

"Do you have _any _idea how _bored _I've been?" she snapped. Benn blinked at her in confusion, as far as he knew the Red Hair Pirates had never encountered this particular girl before.

"Only people with boring minds can get bored," Mihawk answered.

Zoro gave her a glare. "It's not like we _asked _to come here."

"You just left!" Perona shouted. "You didn't even give me a warning that you were going to disappear, you just did! If I hadn't used my Hollows on you before, I never would have found you!" She paused, then, noticing the white bandages wrapped around Zoro's left eye. "What happened to your eye?"

"High-powered cutting curse," Zoro answered. "According to Mihawk I subconsciously activated Armament Haki or it would have taken half of my head off along with my eye."

Perona blanched. "Thanks for the nice mental image," she muttered.

"You're welcome," Zoro replied. "Is your body here with you, too?"

"This _is _my body," Perona replied smugly. "I can fly while still in it now."

"Wha' Devil Fruit did ya eat?" Aldis asked curiously.

"The Horo Horo no Mi," she replied. "So what is this place anyway?"

"It's called Hogwarts! It's a magic school! And we're in another world!" Bambor answered.

"Another... world?" Perona asked, suddenly feeling rather faint.

"Yup!" Shanks said happily. "And we haven't the faintest clue of how we got here!"

"Well, actually, we do know," Benn said. "Yoru managed to call them here after she gathered up enough strength from the air. Apparently it's full of magic and she was able to draw upon that energy."

"Yeah, it's a mystery effect," Shanks said dismissively.

"Zoro and I got summoned here by a meddling old man," Mihawk said. "We did not exactly have time to 'give you a warning'."

"Meddling old man?" Perona cocked her head to the side. "Who? And what do you mean by 'summoned'?"

"I mean we got summoned. Literally. With a spell," Mihawk said. "The meddling old man's name is Dumbledore. His full name is extremely long and I refuse to repeat it."

"A spell? But magic doesn't exist!" Perona protested. Her Hollows made sounds of agreement.

"It does in this world. Besides, what are Devil Fruits if not magic?" Benn asked.

Perona hummed. "I see..." she murmured. "Well anyway why were you summoned? I mean, there must be a reason, right?"

"To defeat the Dark Lord and save wizarding society," Mihawk said. "That is all I will say on the matter."

"So who is this Dark Lord?" Perona asked. "If I can get a Negative Hollow through him at some point I'll be able to track him."

"Are you actually offering to help?" Zoro said in disbelief.

Perona scowled and stuck her tongue out at him. "It is evident that neither of you will be coming back to Kuraigana until this business is finished and I would rather not stay there alone."

"Your help would be appreciated," Mihawk said smoothly, interrupting the argument before it could begin. "We have reason to believe that the Dark Lord will attack in three months' time. Sooner than that, we do not know anything about his attack plan. However if it is possible for us to find him and get you to pierce him with one of your Negative Hollows, then we will do so."

"I'm glad _someone _appreciates me," Perona muttered.

"While you're here, try not to cause any trouble," Mihawk added. "Randomly using your powers on students counts as 'trouble.'"

"Oi, don't try to order me around!" Perona snapped. "I'll use my powers on whatever I please!"

"Fine by me. Just don't blame me when you become banned from attending meals. You will have to cook for yourself again," Mihawk said.

"Oh, okay then," Perona said.

Benn facepalmed. "Manipulator..." he muttered.

Yasopp patted him on the back. "It's for a good cause," he said soothingly.

"She's going to be a pain, isn't she?" Tiern sighed.

"Aw, it'll be fine," Aldis said. "If she makes trouble I'll jus' find a way ta stick this in 'er." He waved a syringe full of a menacing-looking black liquid. In reality it was just water with food coloring in it, but no one needed to know that.

Perona slowly backed away from the insane-looking doctor. Perhaps coming in and getting involved with Red-Hair's crew hadn't been such a good idea...

**_Please review!_**


	19. Pranks and Rumors

Perona had fun exploring Hogwarts for quite a while. It was such a big castle, with so many hidden secrets! It helped that if she ever got lost she could easily find her way back by sending her Negative Hollows to explore. She also noted that there appeared to be a high number of students in the castle, most of which seemed content to ignore her.

However, there was one encounter that she remembered... she had been down exploring the dungeons , just walking along and minding her own business, when she encountered a blond with two gorilla-like bodyguards. She had been content to simply ignore him, like she'd been ignoring everyone else, but oh no he just _had _to start a fight.

"Not another one..." he complained out loud. "The castle is already overrun with enough muggles as it is!"

"What's a muggle?" Perona asked innocently.

"People like you," the blond responded with a sneer that made his somewhat handsome face look very ugly indeed. "The lowest kind of human, people who can't use magic."

"Magic? You mean like the way swordsmen can create blades out of _air? _Or the way Fangor can turn into a lion at will? Or how Rockstar can dissolve people's organs with his voice? Or how Shanks can make people pass out with a glare? Or how Bambor manages to communicate with Monstar despite them being different species? Or how Yasopp's bullets can turn into fireballs or daggers midair? Or how Tiern is capable of wielding a giant club one-handed if he wants to? Or how Lissan's fighting gear can't be destroyed by anything?" she asked innocently. She could have continued, too. On an oridinary day she probably wouldn't have boasted like this, but hey, she was bored.

"Or how I can do this?" she added, raising one hand. Three Negative Hollows flowed out of it and towards the blond and his two bodyguards. Before they had a chance to blink, the ghosts pierced their bodies and they became incapable of saying much of anything.

"I do not disserve to live in the same world as everyone else..." the blond moaned. Perona smirked in satisfaction. She turned around and walked back down the corridor, contentedly spinning her umbrella.

_**Elsewhere... **_

The new injured state of the Red Hair Pirates had quickly fueled the infamous Hogwarts Rumor Mill. The dramatic entrance into the Great Hall hadn't exactly helped, either. There were multiple variations, some saying that they had discovered Voldemort's secret base, others saying that they had run into something in the Forbidden Forest.

Then a few days later there were the three new figures that just showed up around the castle. It did not help that all three were female. Rumors once again flew, some saying that Dumbledore had likewise summoned them for "entertainment." Others said that they had been summoned for the war effort.

The discovery of Draco Malfoy and his goons collapsed in a corridor hadn't helped, and neither had Perona's spectral laughter drifting around the scene. Soon it became common knowledge that Perona had single-handedly defeated the Scion of Slytherin. Then there was the fact that multiple people had seen her pass through walls, so she soon became known as "The Battle Ghost of Hogwarts."

When Perona randomly floated around the castle she only reinforced the rumor.

Yoru and Kori eventually became known as guardian angels, due to their habit of randomly dissolving into mist/snowflakes and zipping through the corridors too fast to be scene, making it look like they had just disappeared. They also tended to put a stop to any bullying wherever they found it. The wings only reinforced the whole "angel" thing.

And if a black wolf sometimes accompanied them, well, even angels have pets.

Somehow the rumor that all three were actually demons from the depths of Hell also got started. How did that information even leak into the main Hogwarts population, anyway? Fortunately for them, most dismissed it as nonsense. There was no way that demons could have infiltrated Hogwarts, after all, right?

Before long, the entire student populace became aware of a giant snake living in the castle. Oh, there were no pictures of it, and no complete sightings, but flashes of it had been scene and shed scales could often be found. The sixth and seventh years were rather creeped out by this, remembering the incident that had taken place five years ago. The other students were blissfully unaware that the giant snake was, in fact, a basilisk.

Then there was the _other _snake that had been spotted around Hogwarts, the weird one with horns and a rapidly changing color. This snake was rumored to be a friend of Harry Potter, since he had been seen carrying it around. This, in turn, fueled the rumor that Harry was in fact going Dark, or that he wasn't Harry at all and was actually a spy sent by the Dark Lord to infiltrate Hogwarts.

Before long, the suspicions that Yoru, Sandai, and Kori were in fact demons managed to merge with the above rumor, and it became known that Harry was actually a _demon _sent by the Dark Lord to invade Hogwarts. The eyes didn't help matters, and neither did the fact that Kori tended to practice flirting on him. If he was not a demon, at the very least he _consorted _with demons.

Naturally, Rita Skeeter eventually heard of this as she had taken to the habit of hanging around Hogwarts in her bug form. Once Rita Skeeter heard of all this delightfully juicy gossip, it was not long before it showed up in the Daily Prophet...

_**Two weeks after Zoro's rescue**_

When Mihawk picked up the Daily Prophet that morning at the staff table, he was not expecting the front page news. He just stared at it, his eyes growing wider and wider. Shanks noticed and leaned over his shoulder to read it. When the Yonko burst out laughing, the rest of the Red Hair Pirates also gathered around them. Zoro joined them after a moment. The students didn't even bother to stare at the pirates crowding around the newspaper anymore, or the laughing captain. They were used to such things by now.

The headlines screamed _**Hogwarts infiltrated by demons?! **_Zoro knew even before he read it that it was going to be a load of shit.

_**Hogwarts infiltrated by demons?!  
**_

_You all know how Harry Potter miraculously showed up again after a two year absence, looking very changed. In fact, the only thing that could match him up with the old Harry Potter is the scar and golden eyes, which he aquired through a ritual. But what if this individual isn't really Harry Potter? _

_ You also know that Harry Potter's two closest friends are Ron and Hermione. However, this reporter has evidence of him attacking one of them with a exploding spell and practically throwing them out. Also, later he lured the other into the Forbidden Forest. Fortunately his diabolical plan failed and Ms. Granger emerged alive and unscathed. _

_ To my mind this is solid evidence that this is not Harry Potter! And what else would have golden eyes but a demon? He has also been seen carrying around a mysterious horned snake on his shoulders, and even talking to a giant black wolf! It could be argued that these are simply magical creatures, but there is also the presence of another female demon which has often been seen consorting with him. _

_ Have we been fooled into thinking that this man is our Saviour when he is in fact a demon sent by the Dark Lord to infiltrate Hogwarts? _

"No way is anyone gonna believe that load of shit," Benn said, shaking his head in amusement. "How'd it even get published, anyway?" The other pirates slowly dispersed, heading back to their seats and striking up their own conversations.

"Do not underestimate the power of the average Wizarding Sheep mind," Mihawk replied. "I would not be surprised if there are already students who believe this."

"Did Hermione really follow you into the woods?" Shanks asked curiously.

"Yes. I did not 'lure' her, though. She came of her own free will," Mihawk stated. "We stumbled into Acromantula territory and had to make a hasty exit."

"Acromantulas? Are those the giant spider things?" Shanks asked.

"Yes," Mihawk replied.

"Huh. I met some of those when I first arrived. Haki didn't work at all..." Shanks said, apparently thinking about something.

"Your Haki hasn't really worked on anything since we came here, has it?" Benn asked.

"Are ya suggestin' tha' Conquerer's 'Aki doesn' work in this world?" Aldis asked curiously.

"No, I think it might just be that everything here has a resistance to mind magic, as it were, and Conquerer's Haki is close enough to mind magic that they can defend against it, too." Benn shrugged. "It's just a theory, though."

Shanks grinned. "Well, whatever. It's not like I need it in order to beat my opponents."

"True enough," Tiern said. "As the only one here able to wound our resident Shichibukai, I think you're more than tough enough."

"Speakin' o' which," Aldis said. "The 'eadmaster came ta me and told me ta tell ya that 'e doesn' want ya and Mihawk ta fight on the school grounds again. Somethin' about it takin' a really long time ta repair 'em."

"There is the Room of Requirement," Mihawk said. He glanced at the Yonko. "Up for a spar after Zoro becomes too injured to continue training?"

"Sure!" Shanks agreed cheerfully. "I'll be on the Red Force, most likely."

"Don' 'urt Zoro too much, kay?" Aldis said. "Patchin' 'im up every day does get old after a while."

"I never give him any wounds that are life-threatening," Mihawk said dismissively. "I would send him to Madam Pomfrey, except that she would keep him in bed for far longer than necessary."

"I think Zoro's asleep again," Shanks said suddenly. He reached out and poked him in the head. Zoro started snoring in response.

"It's like 'e's got narcolepsy o' somethin'," Aldis remarked. "'E falls asleep everywhere."

"Waking him up is easy. Watch," Mihawk said in a somewhat lecturing tone. He unsheathed the knife around his neck and flicked it at Zoro's hand. The swordsman reflexively moved his head to the side and the knife thudded into the wood. He blinked awake and looked around in confusion.

"Did something attack me?" he asked the world at large. He glanced down at his hand to find that there was a small cut in the wood next to it. He shrugged. "Whatever."

Mihawk sheathed the kogatana and stood. "Time for training," he said, getting up from the table and heading towards the doors leading out to the castle grounds. Zoro sighed and followed him.

"Wow, that actually worked," Shanks said. "Hmm, I'll have to remember that if I ever get a chance to prank him when he's asleep. No sharp and pointy objects..." his voice trailed off to a soft mutter.

_**Elsewhere... **_

Fred and George carefully made their way towards the Red Force. They figured that they'd be able to sneak aboard and set up some traps while the pirates were all at breakfast. Fred was carrying a bottomless bag with all the various supplies.

They reached the edge of the lake easily enough. However, they had to think how to actually get _on _the ship. It had been moved closer to the edge of the lake, true, but it was still far too far for them to jump.

A pair of levitation charms later and the twins were on board. They looked around the ship, trying to decide where the best place to set up their traps would be. After a bit of searching, they found what they thought was the kitchen. They opened the door and prepared to quickly slip through and set up.

However, instead of an empty kitchen they found a very _occupied _kitchen. Someone had stuck their head in a cabinet and appeared to be trying to attach something to one of the walls. The pirate heard the door opening and pulled his head out, though his hands remained where they were. "Who're you two?" he asked. "What're you doing aboard the Red Force?" A moment later, he said, "If you want to set up pranks, I won't stop you. Captain needs someone to keep him on his toes."

That had definitely not been the response they had expected. And how had he known that they were on the ship to prank the pirates anyway?

"I'm Gred," Fred said.

"And I'm Forge," George said.

"Thank you for allowing-"

"Us to prank you."

"It is most-"

"Generous of you."

"I'm Benn. Feel free to prank any room except my monitor room," the pirate said. "I'll get _most _unhappy if you do that." He paused, then added, "And kindly leave the den-den mushi alone. It's hard enough with most of my crew deactivating them whenever they see them."

"Den-den mushi?" Fred asked.

"What're those?" George added.

"These," Benn said, pulling a pink baby den-den mushi out of nowhere, "are den-den mushi."

"Well, see-" Fred said.

"You later," George finished. They simultaneously backed out of the room and headed off to another part of the ship.

_**Later... **_

After depositing Zoro in the normal spot in Aldis' room, Mihawk turned to escape before Shanks could find him and start annoying him again. On the way out his foot pressed what amounted to a magical trigger. Suddenly, a rain of green... stuff... poured down on him from above. Needless to say, he was not amused.

"Benn," Mihawk growled. "Where is he?" He pulled off his dripping hat and attempted to empty as much of the ooze out of it as possible.

"Prob'ly in the monitor room," Aldis offered. His voice was a little strangled as he tried to stop himself from laughing. A world-feared Shichibukai covered in green goop was a sight to behold.

Mihawk stalked off to find Benn.

A few minutes as the door was shoved open by an irate Shichibukai, Benn glanced up and immediately started laughing. "I didn't think... that they'd get.. _you _with that!" he gasped.

"Who were they?" Mihawk growled. A small puddle of green slime was starting to grow around his feet.

"Um, well, I'm not really sure I should tell you," Benn began. "I mean, you have this habit of killing people who annoy you, with the exception of Captain..."

"_Who were they?_" Mihawk hissed.

"They called themselves Gred and Forge," Benn said hesitantly. "I don't know if those are their real names or not..."

Mihawk groaned. "I should have known..." he muttered. "Where are they?" he asked in a somewhat calmer tone, gesturing to the banks of monitors.

"Um... they appear to be in an old classroom on the fifth floor," Benn said after a moment's search.

"_Thank _you," Mihawk said before stalking out of the room, presumably to go terrorize the twins. A moment later he heard a splash and Benn thought that Mihawk had probably jumped into the water in order to rinse off the green ooze.


	20. Demon Not-Sight

Fred and George were just leaving their planning room (a dusty classroom somewhere on the fifth floor) when they encountered what looked like a demon for all intents and purposes. A dark aura flowed around him (her?) disguising his (her?) age and sex. Cold yellow eyes stared out of the flowing mist and when he took a step forwards Hogwarts itself seemed to shake.

_"You will never prank Dracule Mihawk again," _the demon hissed. He (she?) pulled back his (her?) hand and power collected in a dark ball. _"Am I understood?!" _

Fred and George nodded frantically before turning to escape.

The mist vanished from around the "demon" and Mihawk smiled slightly to himself. The ethereal strands collected into Yoru, who once again wasn't wearing any clothes. "Put on some damned clothes," Mihawk said wearily. She just didn't seem to get it that it was not socially acceptable to walk around naked...

"Hmm? Oh yeah," Yoru said. Black mist poured out of her body and wove itself into a set of robes. "I wonder how long its going to take them to think that it was a prank pulled by you."

"It is not a 'prank,'" Mihawk said firmly. "It is a way of getting them to leave me alone as well as revenge."

Yoru snickered. "Whatever you say, Wielder-sama."

"Don't call me that," Mihawk said.

"You know the plan wouldn't have worked if I hadn't used some Mental Magics to convince them that you were really really scary," Yoru said. "Plus I provided the mists... and am generally awesome."

Mihawk sighed, then said, "Thank you."

Yoru nodded in satisfaction. "That's more like it!" she said happily. Then she cocked her head to the side and said, "You know, I've been thinking."

"Always a bad sign," Mihawk said.

"Did you just make a _joke?!_" Yoru gasped in mock surprise. "I do believe you are learning... anyway, we're connected because of the Wielder bond, right?"

"Your point?"

"Well, it's a mental connection, and all, so I was wondering if it would be possible to actually switch minds," Yoru said.

"Switch minds? As in you gain control over my body and I gain control over yours? Or something like that?"

"Hmm, well who knows how it would really work out, but something like that, yes. It is possible, of course, that you might just end up stuck in my sword form and will not be able to materialize. It would be an experiment."

"Alright," Mihawk said. "Shall we head to the Room of Requirement to try this?"

"A good idea," Yoru agreed. Mihawk set off towards the Room with Yoru floating along behind him, her bottom half nothing but trailing black mist.

Some time later, they were both seated in the Room of Requirement which looked like a forest for no apparent reason. Mihawk had Yoru's sword form across his lap. He closed his eyes and waited, figuring that Yoru would be the one to initiate this.

A moment later, there was an extremely weird sensation, like he was lifting away from his body except that he wasn't and could still feel everything his body was feeling. There was a sudden sharp pain as if he had broken through a wall of some sort by being thrown at it. Then the pain was gone and he felt extremely weird.

Mihawk opened his eyes, although he didn't really have eyes. It was more like he started paying attention to his surroundings. "This is weird," he tried to say, but he had no mouth, so he made no sound.

He could literally feel the energy pulsing through everything. It was almost as if his vision had been replaced as Haki, except that he was seeing things at the same time. Everything around him was like this constant flow of bright colors, with the colors mingling and interacting in some places, and in others staying completely separate. After a moment he realized that he was looking at a weave of magic only each strand had its own color and they were all mixing at the same time.

_So this is what the Room truly is, _he thought. As he continued looking around, he noticed behind him his own body, or the body that had been his. Through it pulsed a dark purple energy that was almost completely contained. Little purple tendrils branched out of the head, lightly brushing over everything in the room. Mihawk realized that he was _seeing _Haki.

It certainly was a very strange way to experience the world, as he didn't have any sense of touch or smell or anything like that in the traditional sense. He looked more closely and saw a pulsing cable between him and his body, which he supposed he should refer to Yoru for now. The cable was a delicate weaving of dark purple and a fierce golden color. _Is the gold me? _Mihawk wondered.

That was when Mihawk realized that there was also another person in his mind. It was in the very back, rather like where Yoru resided when he was in human form. He reached out a mental tendril towards it, the equivalent of stretching out a golden-colored strand towards the rope in his sight, and brought the presence closer. He could detect feelings and thoughts and a secondary layer that he thought might be memories.

_Woah, his vision is weird, _was the first thought that he detected. _How can humans see like this? They can't sense _any _form of energy! All they can see is physical form! This is weird... hey, are you listening to this, Wielder of mine? _

_ Yes, _Mihawk thought, trying to push the thought into the other presence. It didn't work. _How do I communicate? _He wondered.

_If you're listening this and wondering how to communicate, you have to manipulate my thoughts directly. Don't worry about giving it your own touch, we can work that out later, _Yoru thought at him. _Here, there's all these unformed thoughts floating around my mind. Just take one and shape it. _

Mihawk reached out again and tentatively grasped on of the 'unformed thoughts' with a single tentacle of power. He wasn't really sure how to shape it, so he thought _Hello _at it. A pulse of power traveled down the tentacle towards it and a moment later the thought took form.

_Yeah, that's the trick, _Yoru thought at him. _How'd you get it to gain your own unique mental imprint? Well, whatever. Have I mentioned that your vision is weird? _

Mihawk took hold of another unformed thought and sent a pulse of power towards it. _You can blast people you don't like who touch you, right? How do I do that? _

_ It's easy, _Yoru replied. _Just push your power outwards in a quick surge. The level of the blasting changes depending on how much power you use. You automatically vibrate in the hands of anyone who isn't me because of the Wielder bond. There is a way to stop it, of course, but let's not worry about that for now, hmm? _

Mihawk didn't have any clue how to send out a pulse of energy. Though he supposed reaching out to the Wielder bond was a way of sending out energy, right? So maybe if he reached out to the world around him? No, all that resulted in was a few more tendrils reaching out and briefly scanning the ground. _How? _He asked Yoru plaintively.

_You can see everything, _she replied. _Look at yourself, take ahold of some of that energy, and push.  
See... everything? _Mihawk thought. He looked outwards again and he realized that although he could easily see the world around him he could see what was within at the same time. Kind of like he was looking outside and inside at the same time. It ended up giving him a full view of the world around him, including himself and Yoru.

He saw golden-yellow energy moving through his body at a regular rate. Interestingly enough, some of it was mingling with where Yoru's hands were touching him, the purple and yellow mixing and yet staying separate. He experimentally redirected a bit of his power at one of the spots where Yoru was touching him and pushed it outwards as quickly as he could.

_There, you're getting the hang of it, _Yoru said. Mihawk could feel a dim stinging in her hand almost as if it were his hand. He decided to pull back a bit and not pay too much attention to her senses. If he did he would end up going crazy.

Yoru stood up and placed Mihawk on her back, or tried to. The sword simply fell off and clattered to the ground. _You have to use your energy to hold on, _she thought at him. _Well, technically to use a scabbard that automatically holds on for you. _

After some trial and error, he managed to construct a working scabbard complete with tendrils that held it to Yoru's back. It was nothing ornate, but it held once he stopped paying attention to it. _Hey, Yoru, _he told her, _Did my or your or whatever body change? Is it that of a woman's now? _

Yoru glanced down thoughtfully and shook her head. _Naw, it's still the same shape as yours, _she replied. _The occupant doesn't matter, I guess, it's still the same old hunk of meat. I can modify it, of course. _So saying, black mist shot out of her hands and formed into a set of silver claws. _See? _The claws dissolved back into mist and moved back into her body.

She stood up abrubtly. _In any case, I am going to have some fun now... _

_ Oi, wait, what are you doing? _Mihawk asked her.

_Going off to have some fun with the miserable wizard called Dumbledore, _she replied. _He won't let me into his office when I'm in my own form and unlike Perona I can't go through walls. He will, however, be completely pleased to talk to you. Any objections, Wielder of mine?" _

_ Fine, _Mihawk replied. _But I'll be keeping an eye on you to make sure you don't do anything that I don't approve with my body... _

_ Yeah, yeah, yeah, _Yoru replied. Mihawk caught the distinct image of her waving her hand at him dismissively. _I won't, jeez. Trust me, won't you? _

_ You know I do, _he responded.

_**Yoru... **_

Yoru carefully walked towards the door leading out of the Room, doing her best not to trip over anything while strengthening her Haki as much as she could. Humans' eyes were _weird. _How could they know _anything _about the world if all they saw was physical form? So limiting... She'd already changed her temporary body's physical appearance. It wouldn't fool a demon, of course, although a demon would tell on sight that it was her, and of course it wouldn't fool detecting spells, but then that was what she was counting on.

She reached the door and opened it, letting it close quietly behind her. To her human sight it dissolved into the wall as soon as she left it, but she knew from past experience that it was still there, just invisible to humans. Then she headed in the rough direction of Dumbledore's office, doing her best to remember the way there from Mihawk's memories.

Before long she reached the gargoyle guarding the stairs. She stared at it for a moment, wondering what to do without her normal senses. She frowned and closed her eyes, relying completely on her Haki to tell her what was going on. She reached out with a tendril of her dark mist and changed the flow of energy. The gargoyle leaped aside and Yoru continued on up the stairs, doing her best to ignore their nonsensical spiraling that really shouldn't have gotten her anywhere.

"Come in," Dumbledore called out jovially before she even knocked on his door.

_He must have detecting spells, _she thought before entering the room and seeing the man that her Wielder hated so much. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw her temporary appearance, complete with waving tentacles for hair and flaming red eyes. The claws and fangs made him look somewhat scared.

Yoru felt a surge of anger from the presence in the back of her mind before she walked a bit closer and looked into his eyes.

Almost instantly she felt a probing presence in her mind. She let it in through her walls and them slammed them shut, trapping him in the midst of her iron grasp. Holding him there while also sending a probe towards his mind made her grimace from the effort, but it was worth it.

After a quick manipulation of Dumbledore's fear centers, she left his mind and let his probe go at the same time. She leaned forwards so close that their faces were almost touching. "I've been waiting to give you my regards," she said. "I think you know it, and you were scared. _You were right to be scared. Touch my Wielder again and you'll regret it._" She hissed the last part in the most menacing tone she could muster before turning around and leaving the office.

_Well, that was fun, _she told Mihawk cheerfully.

_It was rather amusing... yes... _the swordsman admitted.

"Oi, Hawky!" a familiar voice yelled. Yoru ducked and Shanks flew over her head. He popped up again, grinning. "Wanna duel?" He, of course, ignored Mihawk's temporary new appearance, only adding, "Is it just me, or did your appearance change?"

"My apologies, but I do not have the faintest idea of how to use a sword," Yoru replied, grinning slightly.

Shanks cocked his head to the side. "Huh?"

Yoru sighed and face-palmed. "Give me a moment," she said. _Oi, Wielder, you interested in fighting him? _She thought at him.

_I suppose, for a little at least, _the Shichibukai replied.

_ Ready to switch back? _

_ Yes. _Mihawk grimaced as the familiar sensation of leaving his body overcame him before moments later he was looking out through his own eyes. He was surprised at how... superficial... his vision seemed after experiencing Yoru's sight. "Much better," he said. He would get used to his regular sight again quickly, he was sure.

"You alright? You seemed like you, I dunno, changed there for a bit," Shanks said. "And like, you were this awesome tentacled monster, but now you're just you..." he sounded almost disappointed.

"I am fine," Mihawk replied. "I believe you said something about a duel?"

"Yup!" Shanks said cheerfully. He started to run out towards the grounds but Mihawk reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt.

"Wait. Dumbles will make trouble if we fight out there again and there are students out there now in any case. Follow me, I know a better place where we can fight." So saying, the Shichibukai led the Yonko back to the Room of Requirement. Once in there, both started using their full power almost immediately.

_**Hermione**_

It was lunch and Hermione was sitting next to Ron and Neville in the Great Hall. She frowned as she thought she felt tremors underneath her feet. "Did you feel that?" she asked Ron.

"Feel what?" the redhead replied between bites.

The ground shook again. "That," she said.

"Huh. Is it an earthquake?" Ron asked the world in general. Neville paled at that and started looking around nervously.

"I've never been caught in an earthquake..." he murmured fearfully.

The ground shook again and this time Hermione realized that it was not just the ground but Hogwarts itself that was shaking. A distant explosion could be heard from somewhere in the depths of Hogwarts followed by more tremors. "What is going on?" she muttered.

There was silence following her statement. Hogwarts did not shake again.

Up at the staff table, Dumbledore felt the wards shift slightly. A moment later, the tremors and explosions ceased. _What was that? _He wondered.

Benn sighed to himself then said, "If he'd asked me I could've told him this would happen..."

"Since when do either of them look ahead?" Yasopp replied, nudging Benn and grinning.

"I suppose..." Benn said. "I do hope the castle doesn't get damaged."

"Oh, it'll be fine. The thing's been around for millennia, no way is it going to fall now!" Lucky said, waving his hand at the pair of them. "Besides, if it's called the "best-defended place in the wizarding world" and the wards can't contain a yonkou-level fight, then they aren't that good."

"True enough," Yasopp said. After a moment, he added, "It's boring in here, you know that?"

"Yeah, since everyone else decided to go on an adventure in the woods..." Lucky said. "I'd prob'ly be there now except that, I mean, who would want to miss out on free food?" He waved a hunk of meat in the air as a demonstration.

"I do hope they haven't gotten into any trouble," Yasopp mused.

"Knowing them, they have," Benn replied. "But they can handle it."

"Hopefully..." Yasopp murmured.


	21. One Big Ship

"Yasopp and Lucky should've come..." Lissan murmured mournfully. He was currently in the lead of the troup of Red Hair pirates who had decided to go and see what else could be found in the forest since they were bored. Aldis was using the opportunity to keep an eye out for any medical herbs that he could use.

"What about Benn?" Rockstar asked.

"Well, you know, he's _Benn. _He would be all boring, most likely," Lissan responded. "That guy needs to stop thinking so much..."

"We'd be dead if it weren't for him!" Bambor pointed out.  
"Yeah, how many times has he managed to keep our ship from sinking in one storm or another?" Tiern added. "The Red Force would be in far worse shape than it is if it weren't for him. And don't forget those serpent currents. Benn's like the only person who's actually found a way of predicting them."

"Ugh, I hate those things..." Crane muttered, shuddering slightly.

"Yeah, they're a pain," Aldis agreed. He paused to grab some leaves off of a small, bushy-looking plant with waxy green leaves. "Damned thin's seem ta pop up more in the New World."

"It could just be that we're unlucky," Lissan pointed out. "Although it is rather odd that we didn't encounter a single patch in Paradise and then suddenly they keep cropping up all the time in the New World."

"Making me have to fix the boat all the time..." Tiern muttered.

Bambor stopped suddenly and cocked his head to the side as Monstar chattered something into his ear. "Monstar says he hears hoofbeats!" he said.

"How can you understand that monkey anyway..." Rockstar muttered. "It doesn't make any sense at all... you're not even a Zoan..."

"Don' think too much about it," Aldis advised. "'Oofbeats? From what direction?"

"He says that they're coming from our left! Well, either that or the bucket! I think he means the left! I'm just not very good at translating sometimes!" Bambor replied.

Tiern patted him on the back sympathetically. "There, there. The rest of us don't even have a hope of understanding him, so you're already farther along than the rest of us."

Aldis coughed meaningfully, looking off to his left. "Anyone else sense tha'?" he asked.

Crane frowned and checked his Haki. "Hmm, yes. Whatever they are, they aren't human."

"That much is obvious," Lissan said disdainfully. "Would you hear hoofbeats if they were human?"

"They could be riding horses, idiot," Crane responded. He was about to say something else but Aldis broke up the argument by whacking them both on the head.

"No' now. Argue later," he said before looking off into the forest. A trio of beings were approaching them. They were half horse and half human, their human parts taking the place of the horse's head. "Centaurs," he said. "Can' say I've ever me' one afore."

"Humans! What are you doing in our territory?" the lead one shouted aggressively. His horse parts were a deep black and his beard shared that color. He had drawn his bow and now had it aimed at the party. The other two centaurs glanced at each other before doing the same.

"Technically he's a crane," Lissan said, pointing at Crane while Bambor said, "Technically he's a lion!" while pointing at Fangor.

Fangor gave Bambor a glare and responded, "As much as I would like to maul you to death right now I am not supposed to transform or else Aldis will do something unspeakable to me. However I am perfectly capable of strangling you with my bare hands."

"Aw, it must be that time of the month, then!" Bambor said. "Are the violent impulses coming through again?!"

"_It doesn't depend on the time of month!_" Fangor yelled. "I haven't fought _anything _for over two weeks! Of course I want to fight something!"

"Woah, relax...!" Bambor muttered in a (somewhat) lower voice. "Just calm down...!"

"Ah, right," Fangor muttered, shaking his head, and apparently relaxing somewhat. "Sometimes I really _hate _my Devil Fruit."

Crane, meanwhile, gave Lissan a glare and stepped forwards angrily. "I am _not _a crane!" he snapped. "Just because my name is that of a bird's does not mean that I _am _that bird!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lissan replied, waving his hand nonchalantly in a manner that was sure to make Crane even more annoyed.

Tiern groaned and face palmed as his nakama started bickering amongst themselves once more. Aldis helpfully managed to hit them all over the head at roughly the same time, successfully splitting up the argument for now. "Thank you," Tiern told him.

"No problem," Aldis replied. He glanced up to see that Rockstar had somehow managed to start up a conversation with one of the other centaurs.

"So what would you call this bird?" he asked, letting loose a wild screech.

"Oh that? That's _obviously _a Stymphalian," the centaur replied.

"But the sound is remarkably close to that of a Voluptor! How do you even tell the difference?" Rockstar asked.

"Well, the Voluptor's shriek is very quiet and can really only be heard by the victim, and they only shriek right before they disembowel their prey. The Stymphalian, though, they'll happily use their calls to declare supremacy or to establish territory. As you are not disemboweled, I'm assuming that you did not encounter a Voluptor. Also, Voluptor's are quite large while Stymphalians are small, another good way of telling them apart."

"Wow, really? I never knew that! What's this one?" He made another bird call, this time a series of sweet, lilting notes.

"What are you doing?" the lead centaur growled as he stomped over to the talking pair.

"Oh, just talking," the other centaur said dismissively. "This human can mimic _any _sound he hears! I mean, like how amazing is that? Although he has a stunning lack of knowledge of local wildlife, and I'm helping him with that."

"Have you taken leave of your senses, Skelaw?!" the first centaur demanded. "That is a human! A _human! _Trespassing on _our _territory! He should be riddled full of arrows!"

"He may be human, but he's nice, unlike you!" Skelaw shouted back. "He at least listens to me! Unlike you! You just seem to be of the opinion that you don't need to listen to me just because I only recently passed my Reckoning!"

"Now, now, Bane, Skelaw, stop arguing, would you?" The third centaur cantered forwards. She, in the manner of her people, wore no clothing and her short black hair didn't disguise anything, either.

"Oh sod off," Bane grumbled.

"Haven't either of you noticed that the trespassers are gone?" she asked with an amused smile on her face. Bane glanced over to where the pirates had been moments ago and found that there was a distinct lack of humans. He glanced back at Skelaw and saw that the red-haired human had likewise vacated the premises.

"Argh!" Bane growled. "I'm gonna kill them when I catch them! They dare to make a fool of me!"

"I'm sure it wasn't on purpose," the female centaur mused. "After all, why would they stick around to get killed by you?"

Bane gave her a glare then muttered, "They were trespassers. They should have waited and let themselves be judged."

"Ah, there is no reasoning with you when you are like this," the female muttered, shaking her head. "I give up."

_**Back with the pirates... **_

"Where are we anyway?" Lissan randomly asked.

"Who knows?" Tiern replied.

"Ya know, now would be perhaps the only useful time ta 'ave a compass," Aldis remarked. "We could prob'ly fin' our way back ta 'Ogwarts with one."

"Well, we don't have a compass," Fangor said. "I'm sure we'll find our way back eventually."

"We're gonna be late for food, aren't we?!" Bambor shouted mournfully.

"I'll cook something when we get back if I'm not too tired," Rockstar promised. "Maybe it'll get Shanks and Mihawk to stop destroying Hogwarts' wards."

"Are they literally destroying the wards, do you think?" Lissan asked. "I mean, isn't it just that their fight was too strong for the wards to contain so Hogwarts strengthened them and now it isn't shaking anymore and there are no explosions?"

"You're thinking too much again," Fangor said. "They're fighting and as a result there were tremors. They stopped fighting so now there are no tremors. It's simple."

A harsh scream interrupted them. Rockstar glanced up and mused, "That's a Stymphalian. What are they anyway? I never had the chance to ask Skelaw."

"I think tha' we'll find tha' out soon," Aldis said, likewise glancing up at the sky. Another screech rent the air but no attacker was seen. "Maybe no'," he added. "I sugges' we don' go in the direction o' the screeches." He found that he was speaking to no one as the rest of the party had already advanced... in the direction of the screeches.

Aldis sighed and followed them. _Idiots couldn' recognize a threa' if it was righ' in fron' o' 'em._ He was able to easily track them with Haki. The forest opened up abruptly and he found himself staring upwards like the rest of the pirates.

A giant column of gray stone shot out of the ground in front of them. Its upper half was riddled with cave mouths and ledges. Strange, glinting nests covered every available space. Some kind of birds circled high above the column, the sun glinting off of metal feathers. Their screams formed some kind of weird song which warned everything that heard it to stay away. Underneath that was a constant cheeping, like the cries of baby chicks.

The forest just stopped a few feet away from the immense column. It just stopped, there was no grass or bushes or anything, just bare dirt as if some force kept it away.

Nearby, a curious deer ventured out of the forest onto the bare dirt. Almost as soon as it did, a speck detached itself from the others and dove through the air at it. A moment later it slammed into the back of the deer, simultaneously crushing its spine and tearing its throat out.

The bird was quite big, easily the size of an eagle. Its beak and feathers had a strange metallic glint, as if they were not made of the ordinary materials that most beaks and feathers were made out of. The bird gripped the deer in its talons and started to rise into the air again, although much more slowly than it had descended. It was obviously quite strong, as the deer was much bigger than it.

Once it passed the first cave mouth other birds dove from nests and the circling pack above to tear off pieces of the meat. They acted like flying piranhas. Within minutes, all that was left was bones which clattered to the ground.

As one, the pirates slowly backed away from the stone pillar and ran away into the forest. Without a doubt, if they had left the safety of the trees, they likewise would have been consumed.

Before long they once again slowed to a walk. Fangor glanced around them uneasily, getting the feeling that they were being watched by _something. _He thought he saw a pair of gleaming red eyes between the trees but when he reached out with his Haki there was nothing there. He blinked and the eyes were gone.

A howl split the air, making most of the pirates jump. It sounded like it had come from _right nex to them. _A howl from a long ways off seemed to answer the first one. Monstar seemed to shrink into himself, looking around at the woods with fearful eyes.

"He's scared of something!" Bambor said. "But I don't know what!"

"That should be obvious," a deep voice said from the trees. "But I didn't know that humans had the ability to understand animals."

Monstar quivered even more at the voice, fluffing out his fur in an attempt to look big while still managing to look extremely scared.

"Who are you?" Rockstar called out boldly.

"I am Kajurinas," the voice said again. Fangor was certain that he could hear pawsteps now. "So tell me; what _are _you doing here? And why shouldn't I rip out your entrails and feed them to my cubs?"

"We're lost," Tiern said. "We didn't know it was your territory-"

"What my friend intended to say was that we apologize for invading your territory," Fangor interrupted, going with what his lion instincts told him to say. He supposed his Devil Fruit _did _come in handy every so often. "We have no intention of attacking you or your pack."

"Is that so..." Kajurinas murmured. "You are unusually polite for one of your kind. I think I like you." He paused, then added, "If you know what's good for you, you'll get out of here some time within the next three months."

"Why's tha'?" Aldis asked. "Is there gonna be an attack o' somethin'? Are ya guys allied with the Dark Lord?"

"There is," Tiern whispered in his ear. "The Death Eaters are gonna attack then, remember what Yoru said?"

"I suppose you could say that," Kajurinas said. "More like allied with the Alpha werewolf. In any case, leave my territory _now _or else I will set my warriors upon you."

"We're going, we're going," Lissan grumbled as they made their way out of Kajurinas' territory. Once the pirates were out of sight, the Hellhound Alpha stepped out from behind a tree. He turned his head and barked orders to his second.

"Follow them," he growled. "Make sure they actually leave. Do not attack unless they perpetrate further acts that are against the Code, understand?"

"Well enough," a second Hellhound muttered before moving out after the pirattes, his black coat letting him easily blend in with the shadows.

Kajurinas watched him go before bounding back off into the forest himself. _Ryujin Jakka, this stuff is complicated! _He thought. _I'd rather just be off eating a nice, plump deer, but oh no I just _have _to be called before invaders are Important Pack Business. _He sighed out loud. _Ah, whatever. Maybe I can still find that plump deer? _

_**Hours later... **_

"Well, we may still be lost, but at least this way we'll have a party, right?" Tiern said, trying to cheer everyone up. They had managed to get a fire going and currently a deer was slowly roasting over it.

"It isn't a party without Captain... or Lucky... or Yasopp... or even Benn and his snide remarks..." Fangor murmured mournfully while staring into the flames.

"Oh, cheer up, I'm sure we'll get out of here eventually! The others will come after us! I'm sure they're worried by now!" Bambor said in a lame attempt to cheer Fangor up.

"But they won't..." Fangor said morosely. "They'll figure that we'll be fine on our own... I guarantee it!" He sighed, once again wishing that he could turn back into a lion without Aldis doing unspeakable things to him. _I really do like my lion form better..._

_**Elsewhere... **_

"Where _are _they?" Benn asked out loud, looking out into the dark forest. "It's not like Bambor to miss a meal..."

"They'll be fine," Yasopp said dismissively. "It's not like those guys could run into any trouble that they couldn't get out of."

"Yeah, you worry too much," Lucky agreed. "They're probably just lost. They'll find Hogwarts again easily enough."

_**Elsewhere... **_

Zoro woke up some time in the middle of the night. He glanced around the dark room briefly before deciding to just go back to sleep, knowing that Aldis would yell at him if he tried to go out and train. Besides, it was the middle of the night and Mihawk probably wouldn't be very happy if Zoro woke him up. He needed to use the bathroom, though.

So he got up and opened the door, peering out into the dark hallway before setting off to find the bathroom.

Several hours later he still had not located the bathroom. He was quite surprised that the ship had a forest this big on it, though. If how long he had been wandering around was an indication, then the Red Force must be huge! But it hadn't looked that big when he'd seen it from the outside... After about half an hour of wandering he'd finally given up and just went behind a tree, so at least he didn't have to worry about _that _anymore.

Then the giant bird swooped out of nowhere and grabbed him by the shoulders. He unsheathed his swords and twisted around in an awkward attempt to slash at the legs holding him. However, due to his position, he was unable to get any force behind his blades and they just bounced off the bird's thick hide. After a moment's thought he tried to talk to Sandai, who he now recognized as always being at the edge of his mind, but he shortly came to the conclusion that his sword was sleeping. Who knew that swords could sleep?

Anyway, there wasn't much he could do at this point. He sighed and sheathed his swords, wondering how he could get the bird to let go of him. He was reminded of a similar circumstance, when that Southbird in Skypiea had grabbed onto his backpack and wouldn't let go. _And then used me as snake bait, _he thought, wincing slightly at that memory.

Only this time the giant bird had actually grabbed _him. Well, once it lets me go I'll be able to fight it, at least, _he thought. _This place has some pretty weird creatures. It reminds me of the Grand Line. _


	22. Alternate Selves

_**The infirmary, sometime the next day**_

Madam Pomfrey nearly had a heart attack when Mihawk staggered in, covered in blood and half-carrying Shanks who was likewise covered in blood. Two people/spirits/whatever were hovering behind them looking anxious and overprotective. One of them looked like a dark angel or something and the other was like a giant dog almost, except that no dog had bird-like feet or a tail like that of a snake's.

In any case, strange visitors aside, she clearly had some patients to take care of. She crisply directed them to seperate beds and then started to examine their injuries. She was rather apalled at the results. "What were you doing to give you such injuries?!" she asked.

"Fighting," Mihawk grunted. "I have not had such a good fight in ages."

"You're half dead!" Madam Pomfrey protested while casting a string of spells to cleanse their wounds and Summoning potions from her cabinet.

"We can't... die in a duel like this," Mihawk said. "We asked... our swords not to deal any... mortal wounds. And there's... a doctor nearby, so other wounds... aren't an issue. Neither is... blood loss with the correct... potions."

"If you're going to fight, do it elsewhere," Madam Pomfrey commanded, looking at the two figures that had followed Shanks and Mihawk in and were now arguing with each other. Black mist and fire were leaking out of both parties and starting to clash.

"I suppose I'd best go back," Yoru sighed. She dissolved into black mist and flowed into the Black Sword that was now lying beside Mihawk. After a moment the other dissolved into fire and joined with Shanks' sabre.

"This makes no sense..." Madam Pomfrey murmured, staring at the spot where the two beings had been moments before.

"Hey... no need to rush... but I'm dying of blood loss over here!" Shanks said, managing to sound cheerful despite being in excruciating agony. "You could help out, you know?"

"Ah, right," Madam Pomfrey said, shaking her head and getting back to work.

_**The Ridge, approximately ten hours earlier**_

Zoro had somehow managed to fall asleep while being carried, so it came as an especially rude awakening when he was dumped onto something scratchy that was poking him in all the wrong places. He blinked awake and looked around blearily before being assaulted by a giant chick that was attempting to eat him. The thing was bigger than him, although quite a bit smaller than the giant bird who'd grabbed him in the first place.

Zoro promptly drew his swords and killed the thing without a shred of remorse. It _was _going to eat him after all. The parents seemed to be gone so he didn't have to fight those as well. He walked over to the edge of the nest and looked down over the edge.

The nest was perched on a bit of rock that jutted out from the side of a sheer cliff. There was lots of forest below him, but in the distance he could see the green of the Hogwarts' grounds and Hogwarts itself. _So I'm not so far away, then. I guess the bird grabbed me from the Red Force then? That is a giant ship... Anyway, how am I going to get down from here? _

As he considered the matter, the edge of the nest gave way and Zoro plummeted towards the forest floor with bits of twig and other nest ingredients falling all around him. He ended up crashing into a tree and, although the branches did slow him somewhat and it was better than smashing into the ground, he still ended up rather battered.

After examining himself carefully, he came to the conclusion that he was mostly undamaged and that he hadn't broken anything. _Now where am I? _He wondered, looking around. He set off in the direction that he thought he had seen Hogwarts in.

A couple of hours later, he almost stepped on a large, blue snake. With horns. He drew back in surprise while the snake coiled up protectively and hissed at him. Her scales rapidly changed to a bright red. She cocked her head to the side and suddenly became much bigger. Zoro yelped as her tail lashed out and coiled around him, lifting him into the air. He was strongly reminded of how the giant snake beneath Hogwarts had attempted to kill him.

He unsheathed his swords and attempted to attack the coils surrounding him but his katana did little more than draw a few streaks of blood. _Damn I can't do anything like this, _he thought. _Why does the local wildlife love attacking me so much? _

_ Prob'ly cuz its the Forbidden Forest. I mean, _think _about it, _Shusui replied. He seemed rather sleepy as if he had only recently been woken up.

_You're awake! I didn't even know swords could sleep... wait how come _you _can talk to me directly now? I mean the demon-swords have been gathering strength and all from the magic around here, but you aren't a demon-sword... at least I don't think you are. _

_ Fate, _Shusui replied.

_That doesn't even make sense! _Zoro grumbled.

_The snake... you have good fate to meet her. She is taking you back to Hogwarts. _With that Shusui seemed to go back to sleep once more.

_Aargh, useless sword, _Zoro thought before once again focusing on his present circumstances. The snake did indeed seem to be carrying in somewhere. Why did it have to hold him upside down, though? Stupid snake.

_**The Free Territory, five hours later**_

Rockstar was the first pirate to wake up, and as such he took it upon himself to wake the others by screeching the call of a Stymphalian. Needless to say that got everyone up quite quickly.

"Rockstar, don't _do _that!" Tiern complained after he had calmed down enough to figure out that Stymphalians were not in fact attacking.

"Oi, guys, we have company," Crane said.

"Company?! Where?!" Bambor asked.

"There," Lissan replied, pointing into the forest. It looked as if there was nothing there but after a moment a figure dressed in a flowing hooded cloak seemed almost to step out of the tree. Nothing could be seen of the figure, it almost seemed to be a hooded specter.

"And what are humans doing this deep in the Forest?" the figure asked in a deep, rich voice.

Fangor tensed slightly. His instincts told him that the figure in front of him was something to be feared and respected while his Haki told him that the figure was rather weak. It didn't make sense. Meanwhile he was fighting his lion's impulse to apologize profusely and pray that the figure's vast power didn't touch him. _But what is it? _He wondered. A single word floated in his mind, although he was not sure how he knew it. _Nekomata. _

"We 'appen ta be lost," Aldis replied. "If we're invadin' your territory we apologize; we did not mean to."

"You do not dress like the wizards around here usually do," the figure said. "Are you the Gap Travelers?"

"Eh? Gap Travelers? What're those?" Tiern asked.

"Those who have traveled across the Gap, of course," the figure replied.

"The Gap?!" Bambor asked. "Whazzat?!"

"The space between worlds," the figure said. "By worlds I mean seperate universes, not planets. For example in this one there is magic while in another world a couple _tera__cael_away there is no magic but there are powerful empaths who can communicate with anything. Your world is also rather close, only a few _kilocael _away. A sufficiently strong Traveler could move between the worlds in a few hours."

"I guess you could call us that," Crane said slowly. "Gap Travelers, I mean. This is not our world, apparently we were called here by a demon who is sealed in a sword, I don't really get it myself, but the point is that we are not natives of this world."

"Hmm... yes..." the figure murmured. It turned around suddenly. "Follow me, I will bring you to the Pridestar. He has wanted to talk to you for some time but our scouts haven't been able to find you."

"What does your Pridestar want to talk to us about?" Rockstar asked. "What is a Pridestar anyway?"

"A Pridestar is the leader of a Pride," the figure said, setting off through the woods. "A Pride is a group of creatures such as myself. A Pridemeet is occaisonally held, when all of the Pridestars meet to discuss matters, but other than that the Prides are completely separate. The Pridestar here says that you are the Destined Ones."

"What are these Destined Ones supposed to do?" Tiern asked, deciding not to point out that they weren't the full group.

"End Voldemort," the figure replied. "End him and all his spawn, so that Babd Catha will never rise again."

"Who is Babd Catha?" Lissan asked. He felt a chill travel down his spine at just the mention of the name and almost hesitated to say it.

"She was the most powerful of the Morrigan, the foul trio of dark wizards who stalked this land several millenia ago. All of the magical creatures of the world came together to destroy the Morrigan and even then they barely succeeded. The most powerful, Babd Catha, managed to cast a spell on one of the most powerful of the human wizards, Salazar Slytherin. At the time we did not know what it was and by the time we did it was far too late. It ensured that if the right procedures were done, she could be reawakened and could take over the body of one of his descendants. By the time we figured this out, several hundred years later, there were already many descendants. We have worked on killing them throughout the centures and now there is only one left: Voldemort.

"If Babd Catha somehow manages to get herself awakened, then there will be war such as this land has not seen for millenia. For that reason we decided at the last Pridemeet that we would assist the so-called Light wizards in this battle." The figure paused before continuing. "I do not see the Chosen, the one who is supposed to end Voldemort among you. Where is he?"

"Probably fighting Shanks..." Rockstar said. "He might be in the infirmary by now, but I doubt it. Their duels rarely end that quickly. Don't worry we'll pass on any information that you tell us to him."

"Hmm... I see," the figure said. "Very well. We are here." The trees once again receded around them and they stood at the edge of a large natural, grassy bowl. A single immense oak was planted in the middle. Its giant roots protruded from the ground and provided many natural caves. Throughout the branches of the giant tree flashes of fur could be seen as hundreds of cats went about their busienss. The floor of the bowl had plenty of cats as well, of all size and shape and color. And each one had two tails.

"Who have you brought back with you?" a loud voice demanded. A lion dropped out of a tree and landed directly in front of the figure.

"Relax, Fangor," the hooded figure said. "They are the Gap Travelers. I am bringing them to the Pridestar."

"Huh?" the human Fangor asked, tilting his head to the side. "He has the same name as me? Come to think of it he _does _look a lot like me in my lion form... this is weird."

"I wonder if there's versions o' all o' us," Aldis said contemplatively. "It would be interestin' to meet the other Shanks."

"Well, if you're sure," the feline Fangor said. "Go on ahead." He disappeared back into the trees.

"I still haven't told you my name, have I?" the figure said. "I do hope you don't mind if I go ahead and _shift _back." It pulled off its cloak. Underneath was a bipedal she-cat with two tails. She was an elegant silver tabby and looked entirely too frail for the powerful voice that she posessed. She bundled up her cloak and placed it on her back before dropping onto all fours. "Much better. In any case, my name is Rayleigh."

Rockstar almost choked. "Wait what? But Rayleigh's male! Argh this doesn't make any sense!"

"Jus' go with it," Aldis advised. "The feline Fangor is even stranger. Hmm, I wonder if this means that there's a Roger running around?"

"Roger? You mean Gold Roger? We all called him that because of the color of his pelt," Rayleigh said. "He died twenty years ago from a serious illness."

"This is weird..." Tiern muttered. "That's how our Roger would've died if he hadn't turned himself in."

"Very weird," Crane agreed.

"Anyway, could ya go ahead an' lead us ta the Pridestar now?" Aldis asked.

"Certainly," Rayleigh replied. She led the pirates to the base of the great tree, leaping onto one of the roots. "Can you climb?"

"Well enough," Tiern responded, glancing around at his companions.

"Very well." Rayleight tensed her msucles and then leaped onto the tree, her claws digging into the bark as she climbed upwards. The pirates followed as best they could. They quickly discovered that the bark was quite rough and gave them plenty of hand-holds.

They continued climbing higher and higher up the main trunk. Occaisonally they had to scoot over because of a branch, but for the most part they continued straight upwards. Rayleigh nodded to familiar cats that she saw as they called out greetings.

Eventually they reached an area where the branches were too thin for any cats to make their nests there. "Almost there," Rayleight said. A few minutes later, they came to the very top of the tree. It resembled a large bowl with multiple jagged edges. Branches grew from the edges of the bowl to arc over it and provide a leafy canopy. There was only one entrance into it.

Rayleigh climbed up first, then offered her paw down to the first pirate in line, Crane. Crane grabbed it and was hoisted up. The rest of the pirates were likewise helped up into the room.

"This is a weird treetop," Aldis remarked. "I though' tha' they just kep' getting' smaller and smaller, no' endin' in a bowl like this."

"Asahira is a strange tree," a voice replied. Aldis glanced up to see a leopard casually resting on a raised dias, his two tails twitching about haphazardly. "I am the Pridestar. Rayleigh, leave us."

Rayleigh dipped her head before making her way back down the trunk. The Pridestar leaped down from his dias and approached them both. He had some very odd markings above his eyes, markings that were not usual on leopards. Well, he _did _have two tails after all, and he could talk, too.

"Rayleigh said that you wanted to talk to us," Tiern said. "He said that we are the Destined Ones, who are supposed to end Voldemort's line."

"Did she now?" the Pridestar mused. His eyes glazed over somewhat. "Hmm, yes. I suppose she did." His eyes returned to a clear focus and snapped to Tiern. "Where is the Chosen? He is not present."

"Fighting Shanks back at Hogwarts," Tiern said. "As I told Rayleigh, we'll tell him everything once we get back."

"Hmm... very well. My name is Lucci and you shall refer to me as such. I did indeed wish to speak with you... mostly to tell you that when the final battle comes your forces shall have this Pride's assistance. Also, my Seers have Seen that the attack will come on the day that humans call Beltane... that is to say, the first day of the month you refer to as May."

"Ya were huntin' us down jus' ta tell us tha'?" Aldis said in disbelief. "Seems kinda like a waste o' time ta me."

"I think I've heard the name "Lucci" somewhere before..." Rockstar murmured, scratching his head as he tried to recall it. "Probably not important."

"It is key information," Lucci replied with dignity. "And that is not all. This here," he pulled a sheet of paper out of somewhere, "Is a map of Hogwarts and the surrounding area. The red areas are the ones that have gone over to Voldemort, the blue ones are for Hogwarts, and the grey are neutral."

"Hmm... so the Acromantulas and Thestrals are neutral," Tiern mused as he looked down at the map. "The centaurs, Nekomata, and Ridge are on our side and the Hellhounds and Eyrie are against us. What is the Ridge and the Eyrie?"

"They are both places where the avian dwellers of this forest reside," Lucci replied. "The Eyrie is home to the Stymphalians and the Ridge is home to the Rukhs. Strangely enough, the birds are the only ones who care enough to actually give their territory names. The rest of the territories are just referred to as the blank territory, like the Nekomata Territory or the Centaur Territory."

"I see! This map will indeed be useful! Can you have a copy made so that way I can give Benn one?!" Bambor asked.

"Hmm... yes, I shall have that done," Lucci said. "Naturally, those in the Free Territory will choose as they will individually. I believe there are quite a few of the more powerful creatures who are just going to ignore everything, but at least one dragon is going to side with Voldemort."

"They're dragons in here?" Lissan asked as he looked down at the map.

"Yeah. There's also a handful of Cerberus's and there may even be one or two demons. There are... things in the Forbidden Forest, and that is why humans such as yourselves should stay out of it, especially the deeper parts," Lucci replied. "There is also the matter of the creatures that live in the Black Lake. I have no idea of their allegiance."

"This is all valuable information!" Bambor said.

"Oh yes, and here, give this to the Chosen." Lucci tossed a thin leather-bound book to Aldis. "It's about how soul magic works, mainly, but it also talks about how to modify soul magic spells so that way they can be cast with a different implement. He will find it useful."

"Well, thanks, I guess," Aldis said.

"Give me an hour or so and I'll have another copy of the map made, then I'll send someone to guide you back," Lucci said.

"Please not Fangor," Fangor said almost immediately. "Send anyone but him. That's just... too weird."

"I do not understand what you have against Fangor, but alright," the Pridestar said. "You guys can go ahead and head back down to the base of Asahira, your guide will find you when it's time."

"Okay, I guess," Lissan said, not entirely enthusiastic about the prospect of doing so much more climbing so soon. _The cats have it easy, _he grumbled silently to himself.


	23. Bonding

_**As someone pointed out, something bad could happen to my story if I posted something that was purely an author's note, so here's a chapter for y'all. I was planning to post it later today anyway**_

_**Midday, Hogwarts**_

"Hey, guys, welcome back!" Benn called down from the Red Force as the majority of his crew exited form the Forbidden Forest and started making their way towards him.

"How'd the adventure go?" Yasopp asked. "You guys didn't see Zoro by any chance, did you?"

"It went well enough," Tiern called back.

"We met these giant spiders! And then there were these metal birds! And giant dogs! Oh, and don't forget the weird cats! Oh and the cat leader gave us this!" Bambor excitedly waved a piece of paper in the air.

"I can't see the paper at such a distance," Benn said. "If, perhaps, you could get onto the Red Force first?"

"Oh, right!" Bambor said.

Once everyone was aboard, Benn took a look at the piece of paper that Bambor had. "Hmm... is this a map of the territories in the Forbidden Forest?" he asked, looking down at the precise lines and colors. "I'm guessing the shading indicates allegiance."

"Yeah! That's what the Pridestar—that's the cat leader—said!" Bambor responded.

"Ey, 'as anyone seen Zoro?" Aldis asked. "'E isn' in my doctor's room."

"He's probably lost again," Yasopp said with a sigh. "How'd he manage to get lost aboard the Red Force? This ship isn't _that _big."

"I swear, he's got a Devil Fruit or something," Crane said. "Maybe the Rosuto Rosuto ni Mi?" _(Lost-Lost Fruit)_

"He'll show up eventually," Benn said. "Just keep an eyeout for him with Haki."

"I guess," Aldis said. "Are 'Awky an' Captain done fightin' yet?"

"I'm not sure," Benn replied. "There haven't been any tremors for a while but that could just be because the wards compensated for the amount of power that was being thrown around. If they are, they're probably both in the infirmary and will be for a while."

"They always are..." Aldis commented with a sigh. "For at leas' a week."

"True enough," Yasopp said.

"Oi, Rockstar!" Lucky shouted. "Food!"

Rockstar sighed and headed towards the kitchen, muttering, "You could just ask the house elves for food..."

"Yeah, but it's not as good as yours!" Lucky replied enthusiastically.

"Whatever," Rockstar said, although he was inwardly pleased. It was always good to hear that his food was liked, whether or not he already knew it.

_**Zoro**_

After that snake _finally _let him go, Zoro headed off in the general direction of Hogwarts. Naturally, it took much longer than it should have to get there, although Zoro, of course, thought that the distance just increased.

_Mihawk wants you to come to the infirmary, _Sandai suddenly said.

_What? _Zoro asked in confusion, pausing somewhere in the vast sprawl of corridors.

_He also adds that I should make sure that you don't get lost, _Sandai added.

_Fate will make sure he doesn't get lost, _Shusui contributed before going back to 'sleep'.

"I'm not going to get lost!" Zoro yelled out loud, drawing some strange looks from passing students.

_Sure, suuure... _Sandai said with amusement.

Several hours later, Zoro finally located the infirmary and walked in to find Mihawk and Shanks both bandaged and lying on separate beds. Shanks appeared to be unconscious or asleep, while Mihawk was talking to someone. After a moment, Zoro recognized her as Hermione.

"Both dead?" Mihawk muttered. "I never thought this would happen..."

"Well, it did," Hermione said sharply. She paused before adding, "Neville managed to kill the Dark Lord for the second time before he died, though. At least that's what I heard from Luna, moments before _she _died from blood loss."

"So the prophecy was fulfilled by him as well," Mihawk murmured. "I take it that he didn't stay dead?"

"No, he came back a lot faster than last time. He regained a body in only a few months," Hermione replied. "No one's quite sure how he did it, but anyway as you saw he still looks like snake-face."

"Yes," Mihawk said. "His new body is faster, though."

Hermione glanced up at the clock and her eyes widened. "Oh no! I'm late for class! Professor McGonagall is going to kill me!" She spun around and rushed out of the infirmary, barely stopping to grab her bag on the way out.

Once she was gone, Zoro walked towards Mihawk somewhat hesitantly. He wasn't entirely sure what he and Hermione had been talking about, but it didn't sound good.

"I should never have left..." Mihawk murmured, so quietly that Zoro almost didn't hear him. "So many people have died because of me..."

Zoro wasn't quite sure what to say to that, but he sat on the chair next to Mihawk's bedside anyway. "They made their own choice," he began hesitantly. "They didn't have to fight if they didn't want to, right?" _I suck at this... _

"If I hadn't left... then they might still be alive..." Mihawk whispered. "Luna... Neville... forgive me..." The last was in a low undertone that Zoro barely caught.

Zoro scowled to himself. _I really am bad at this. _"Look, um," he began awkwardly. He sighed. "The past is past, you can't change it. So why bother worrying about it?"

"But it's _my fault_," Mihawk said passionately. "I'm surprised they don't all hate me..."

Zoro sighed, then said, "Okay, so you made a mistake. It's _past. _You shouldn't worry about it. And it's _not _your fault that they died. They made their own choice. From what I understand, everyone pushed all this responsibility on you to be the one who had to kill Voldemort. There are other perfectly competent wizards out there and they should have fought him themselves instead of hiding behind a kid."

Mihawk paused before quietly saying, "Do you really think that?"

"Of course," Zoro replied. "Why would I say something I didn't mean?"

There was another pause, which stretched out into awkwardness before Mihawk finally said quietly, "Thank you."

Zoro wasn't quite sure what to say after that, so both were quiet for at least a few minutes. _This is awkward, _he thought.

"Anyway," Mihawk suddenly said, apparently feeling as awkward at Zoro at the silence. Zoro frowned slightly, as the slight glimpse he'd caught of, perhaps, who Mihawk truly was, was hidden. It wasn't quite as well hidden, Zoro suddenly realized. _Although he was cold and distant to me when I first arrived at Kuraigana... now he's almost... warm? No, that's not quite right. More like he's almost come to trust me... and so is showing me more of what he is thinking and feeling. _"What?" Zoro asked out loud when he realized that Mihawk had been talking for some time.

Mihawk sighed quietly, before repeating himself. "As I was saying, I am currently confined to this bed. Because of that I will be unable to instruct you like I've been doing. So I'll continue to teach you Haki." He paused, before adding, "How is your Observation coming?"

"Slowly," Zoro admitted. "I can activate it at will now, but never for more than a minute or so at a time and it usually takes a few minutes for it to activate."

"I see," Mihawk nodded. "Then once I'm able to walk around easily again, I will work on duration with you. The activation time should become smaller naturally, and once you increase the duration enough, you'll hardly ever need to reactivate it, and eventually you will become able to keep it up all the time.

"For now, though, I am going to attempt to teach you the basics of Armament Haki," Mihawk finished.

_**Elsewhere**_

Perona walked right into the trap. The twins, watching from a nearby alcove, laughed quietly to themselves as the magically suspended bucket tipped over. It was full of neon yellow goop that would turn everything it touched bright neon yellow for several days.

The goop went right through her. Perona jumped and it was only then that the twins noticed that she had actually been floating about an inch above the ground the whole time.

"What was that?!" she yelped. "Who attacked me?! Negative Hollow!" White ghosts flowed out of her outstretched hand and quickly found the twins.

Fred, not knowing what they were, curiously touched one. "I want to die..." he moaned, keeling over. George burst out of the alcove and started to run away, but one of the ghosts reached him and dove straight through his chest.

"I want to be reborn as a fly..." George groaned, likewise keeling over.

"And that is why you do not attack me," Perona said smugly, floating off through one of the walls in search for something interesting to do.

_**The next day**_

"You wanted to see me?" Dumbledore asked, twinkling benevolently at the pirate across his desk.

"Indeed," Benn said. "I realize I should've told you this earlier, but, well, I got distracted. Err, anyway, the Death Eaters are gonna attack in... what is it now? 73 days? Yeah, that's right. In 73 days they're gonna attack Hogwarts." He paused before adding, "I suggest you pull in whatever troops you can command into Hogwarts. I would also suggest letting any of the sixth or seventh years who want to fight fight in this upcoming battle.

"We'll need all the troops we can get."

Dumbledore's eyes had stopped twinkling since Benn's first sentence. "I see. Thank you," he said slowly, already making plans. The defense of Hogwarts was indeed important, and the fact that Benn had come to him probably meant that he didn't think that the pirates would be enough additional troops against the Death Eaters.

"You're welcome," Benn said quietly. On his way out of the office, he added, "Don't think this makes you any friend of mine. It would merely be stupid to squander the additional resources that you can provide." Then he left, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Dumbledore stared after him for a long moment, before beginning to write a letter to the Minister.

_**Several days later**_

Mihawk sat, leaning against a tree, and stared contemplatively into the heavens. He was still wrapped in bandages, but he had convinced Madam Pomfrey to let him go.

His right hand absent-mindedly stroked Yoru's sheath, as if trying to convince himself that she was still there. He heard the snap of a twig and looked up to see Zoro, just standing there and watching him.

Mihawk sighed quietly and clambered to his feet. Suddenly, he staggered and nearly lost his balance. Zoro reached out to help steady him, and Mihawk fell limp into his arms. The Shichibukai's eyes were closed and he appeared to have lost consciousness.

Fortunately, this was one of the rare times that Zoro actually managed to find his way, and he got back to the castle without too many problems. As to finding the infirmary, that would have been a great deal more problematic if Ron and Hermione hadn't taken him there.

Madam Pomfrey promptly shooed them out of the infirmary and Zoro waited outside the door while Hermione and Ron ran to their next class. Approximately half an hour later, Madam Pomfrey finally let him inside.

"How is he?" Zoro immediately asked, walking over to Mihawk's bedside. The Shichibukai was still unconscious. His hat had been removed and there was a bandage wrapped around his forehead.

"I am not entirely sure," Madam Pomfrey admitted. "There does not seem to be anything wrong with him externally, except for a weird lightning-shaped cut on his forehead that I treated and bandaged." She paused, and added, "I suppose since he's unconscious you can't disturb him, so stay as long as you like." Then she disappeared back into her office.

Zoro found a chair somewhere and sat down, his eyes never leaving Mihawk's face. It occurred to him that this was almost the exact opposite of what had happened when he lost his eye. _He looks so peaceful like this, _Zoro thought. _Completely relaxed and unguarded. I wonder if he'll ever show me that face when he's awake? I would like him to... where did that thought come from? _Zoro shook his head and sighed, deciding that it really wasn't all that important.

About half an hour later, the door suddenly slammed open, startling Zoro awake. A red blur dashed across the room, knocking over Zoro's chair on the way, and stopped at Mihawk's bedside.

"Gaah!" Zoro shouted as his chair abruptly tilted over and he slammed into the ground. "What the hell was that? Shanks?!"

"Hawky!" the red-haired man wailed. "You aren't dead are you? Oh no, you are dead! Noooo!"

"What is all this noise?!" Madam Pomfrey snapped, coming out of her office.

"NOOO! YOU CAN'T BE DEAD!" Shanks screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Shut UP!" Mihawk snapped, suddenly sitting up and punching Shanks in the chest with a Haki-enhanced fist. The red-haired man was thrown backwards and thumped into the wall, leaving a rather large dent. He was back on his feet in an instant.

"Yay! You're alive~!" Shanks cheered, rushing back to Mihawk and hugging him fiercely.

"Gahk... can't... breathe..." Mihawk gasped. He finally managed to break Shanks' stranglehold and took a few seconds just to gasp for breath. "Idiot," he growled, although there was no malice in it. "Of course I am live... I would not die from something as small as that."

Zoro finally managed to untangle himself from his chair and stand up. Mihawk almost choked again when the green-haired man hugged him. _Hugged _him!

"Get off..." Mihawk muttered. Zoro, of course, ignored it.

"Don't die... I don't want you to die..." Zoro whispered into his ear.

Mihawk was speechless for a moment before saying, "I won't, idiot. I'm not that weak."

Zoro finally released him, rubbing his head sheepishly and backing away before asking, "What happened?"

"Voldy attacked me through the link again," Mihawk replied. "Yoru defended me, the resulting battle knocked me unconscious. She managed to block it as well, so this will not happen again."

"As long as he doesn't break the block," Benn commented from the doorway. He had probably followed Shanks up. "By the way, I don't think Dumbledore will be happy about the number of kicked in doors."

"Did you kick in all the doors on your way here?" Mihawk asked. His voice sounded somewhat strangled as if he was trying not to laugh. Zoro was chuckling openly.

"Yeah! It's more fun that way!" Shanks said cheerfully.

"All of you, out!" Madam Pomfrey shouted, starting to push the pirates towards the door. "Mr. Dracule needs rest and you aren't helping!"

"A nap would be good," Mihawk agreed before falling asleep. The battle in his mind had severely drained his energy.

**_This is not part of my story_**

This is important SOPA is coming back please consider posting this on one of your stories!  
MY DEAR DARLINGS THIS IS A WARNING!  
I found this out from an author of a story!  
In is an important notice that will affect everyone on this sight and many others.

SOPA is back. The bill that is threatening to take away our freedoms on the internet is back. Not only back, but it is trying to be passed quietly so nobody notices. SOPA will guarantee that anybody who streams a video, whether it be on youtube, a walkthrough for a video game, or a kid singing a song that is 'copyrighted' they will be treated as a felon. That is one of the highest form of criminal offensives for something as simple as uploading a video game walkthrough on youtube, playing a song with lyrics of your favorite artist and even one we all go on, this one right here.

I am telling everyone this because it effect us all here as Fanfiction will being attacked as well. A fanfiction writer can being carted off to a maximum state prison for writing a character from Naruto into their fanfic, or a character from Bleach, or a character from One Piece, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, the list is endless. You think I an exaggerating? I assure you that if this passes it will not be long, not be long at all, because once this passes, then anything goes. Fanfiction will be attacked for using canon characters in a fanon manner, authors will be arrested for writing a book whose main character has glasses just like in another series, artists will be arrested and confined for using sapphire blue in the iris of one of their characters like another author. This effect us all and we can not let it happen.

I figure some of you do not believe me and I can understand. I could be making this up for all you know. But I provided links below to show you I am telling the truth. Simply remove the spaces below, see for yourself.

: / www . huffingtonpost 2013/08/07/unauthorized-streaming-felony_n_3720479 . html

: / www . washingtonpost blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/05/sopa-died-in-2012-b ut-obama-administration-wants-to-revive-part-of-it /

: / www . techdirt articles/20130805/12472124074/administration-cant- let-go-wants-to-bring-back-felony-streaming-provis ions-sopa . shtml

: / www . youtube watch?v=1fTt4K4Cae4

We are not as powerless as we might think. We stopped SOPA before and we must do it again. Our stories, our ideas, our passion will be threaten. Everything from this to fan art to youtube is in danger of being gone forever.

I am asking you to spread the word and fight this assault on our freedoms. Because this isn't just going to affect Americans, it will affect everybody across the globe. Tell you friend, have they spread the word so we may stand up to fight this. It is our right as freedom of speech. We are not making money doing what we love, we do it because we enjoy it and want to spread our words, our ideas, our art to everyone who wishes to see it. but we can stop it but only if we stand together. Please my friends, my fellow reader and writers, don't let what we love be nothing but dust in the winds of time.  
-Please spread the word and help us be free on the internet like she said we stopped it before lets do it again come darlings lets push SOPA back fight for our freedom!  
Rewrite this and post on your story chapters for everyone else to see so we can stop SOPA!


	24. Ron's Non-Idiot Self

**_So sorry for the long wait! School and things have combined to make this late. Hopefully such a long pause will not happen again, although I'm not making any promises since school has started up for me again. But hey, at least this chapter is a couple pages longer than average! _**

Zoro grimaced as he gained yet another small cut on his shoulder. He moved back, doing his best to dodge Mihawk's slashes and block the ones that he couldn't. _Damn it, how can I ever beat him if he's this much stronger than me?_

In short order, he gained another cut, this one across his chest. "Keep your mind on the fight," was all Mihawk said before slicing at his head.

_How does he know? How does he _always _know? _Zoro wondered as he parried Mihawk's cut. For a moment, the two swordsmen stood chest to chest, each of them trying to cut the other, Zoro's three blades all working together to block the older swordsman's cut.

Zoro grimaced, feeling his arms began to shake slightly from the effort. A bead of sweat slipped down his face and he clenched his jaw, determined not to give in. Mihawk, for his part, wasn't even breathing hard. Zoro narrowed his eyes at that, once again wondering if he would ever be able to reach the other swordsman's level.

A moment later, Zoro's arms gave way and he stumbled backwards, tripping over a root. Before he could reach the ground, however, he was caught by Mihawk and pulled back to his feet. The older swordsman's gaze was unreadable as he said, "That is enough for today."

Zoro glanced up at the sky and saw that it was nearly dark. He sighed and sheathed his three katana and started heading back to the castle.

"It's this way," Mihawk stated, standing at almost the opposite side of the clearing.

"No, it's this way!" Zoro protested.

Mihawk gave him a level look, then said, "We both know that your 'sense of direction' is nonexistent. It's this way."

Zoro scowled before muttering, "Fine," and following the swordsman back to the castle.

"Zoro," Mihawk said, suddenly turning around to face him. "I will have to take this up with your captain as well, but... would you mind if I were to join your crew?"

Zoro almost choked. "What?!" he managed to gasp. He quickly seized control of himself and continued in a more even tone."Why would you want to do that?"

"After you defeat me, I will not be able to remain a Shichibukai," Mihawk said matter-of-factly.

_Wait, he thinks that I will defeat him?_ He shook his head to clear it of those distracting thoughts before he spoke again. "Wait, what?" he asked. "Why would you have to leave the Shichibukai?"

"It is part of being a Shichibukai," Mihawk stated. "If I get defeated in a manner that can not be covered up easily, like our duel would be, then I would have to leave and find somewhere to go as they will undoubtedly send forces after me, to make it look as if I had died. I am strong, but I can not defeat an admiral."

"I wouldn't mind," Zoro said slowly. "In fact, I think... I might well... like that." The last was so soft that Mihawk barely heard it.

"We shall see," Mihawk simply stated, but when Zoro looked up at him again he saw that the Shichibukai was smiling slightly. It wasn't much, merely a slight curve of his lips, but definitely a smile. As the pair headed back to the castle, Zoro couldn't help but wonder if Mihawk was starting to consider him as more than a nakama, but he quickly dismissed that idea. It was, after all, nonsense.

_**Late evening**_

The basilisk reared back and looked at the three humans before it through hooded eyes. It stared at them, contemplating whether it wanted a meal now or later. Either way, it was sick of turning its prey into stone, so it closed its inner eyelid. It couldn't eat stone, after all.

The three humans stared back, as if to challenge it to a dominancy contest, which made it hiss in anger, its long tongue flicking out from between poisoned fangs.

Then its meal turned and fled. The basilisk decided to give chase, as it hadn't had anything to eat in a long while. It had decided that it was going to eat them, or, if not them, then the first human that stumbled across its path.

And so it was that as Mihawk was turning a corner, heading down to the dungeons to get potion ingredients, he was smacked into by three terrified Slytherins. He nearly fell, stumbling and catching himself by leaning against the wall. _My chest... _he thought, feeling rather irritated as the wounds that he had gotten from Shanks acted up again. _I hope they didn't reopen. Maybe it's just a temporary pain? Damn, I knew we shouldn't have gone all out... it was nice to fight against someone seriously for once, though._

A loud hiss drew his direction back to the giant snake that was currently attempting to coil itself in front of Mihawk. Due to the narrow nature of the Hogwarts corridors, it was failing miserably.

_$Go away,$ _Mihawk told it. _$I am in no mood to fight.$_

The snake drew back... and struck, its flat head slicing through the air and carving a deep furrow in the ground where Mihawk had just been. The Shichibukai had leaped backwards, drawing Yoru as he went, wishing all the while that he didn't have to fight with his wounds.

_Don't look at it! _Yoru shouted frantically in his mind from somewhere far away in the castle. _If you look in its eyes then it'll turn you to stone! _

"Yes, I _know _that," Mihawk muttered, leaping backwards again to dodge another strike. He raised Yoru above his head, holding onto the hilt with one hand, and the crossguard with the other, before sending a long flying attack at one of the basilisk's eyes.

The snake hissed in pain, blood dripping down its face from where it had been struck. Mihawk was uncertain how much damage had been dealt, due to the diamond-hard nature of a basilisk's scales, but he was certain that he had blinded it.

The basilisk drew back again, preparing for another strike. As it's mouth shot open, baring a pair of fangs as long as Mihawk's forearm, the Shichibukai raised Yoru again, horizontally this time. He slashed the air, sending a flying attack directly towards the basilisk's mouth.

The basilisk drew back further in surprise, but Mihawk had predicted that, and so the blade still caught it in the mouth. Its upper head went flying through the air to slam into a wall, sliding down it slowly and leaving a bloody smear on the stone. The body flailed around for a moment, blood leaking out of the almost decapitated snake, before it fell and hit the ground with a thump.

Mihawk flicked the blood off of the Black Sword before sheathing it. After a moment he decided that he'd rather not deal with the snake, and so he just walked off down the hallway, leaving it for some unlucky student to happen upon.

_**Ron**_

Ron watched Harry from his dorm window, frowning to himself in thought. _That article, a couple days ago, no way it's true, but could Harry actually be a spy sent by the Dark Lord? The only thing that really shows that he's Harry is his eyes, that and his scar if he even still has it. _

Ron turned away from the window and sat down on his bed, sighing quietly. He was alone in the room, as everyone else was at dinner. "I don't know what to do..." he said out loud. He frowned, then and murmured quietly, "Are we really that dead to him? I mean, sure Dumbledore might have given my family money to make sure I got on the train at the right time, but _I _never knew about it, not until I overheard my parents talking. All I did was do what they told me to. Is that so wrong?"

Ron glanced down again, and saw that Hermione had come out of nowhere and now she had Harry were talking. _What are they doing out of the Great Hall anyway? _

A soft whisper of cloth moving against floor sounded behind him, and Ron turned to see one of the infamous "Guardian Angels of Hogwarts" sit down next to him. She was wearing some kind of weird black dress that billowed around her like a cloud.

"Why are _you _here?" Ron asked. It didn't occur to ask her how she had gotten into the Gryffindor tower, everyone knew that the two Angels could go wherever they pleased.

"Instinct, and when I get one as strong as this, I follow it," Yoru replied ambiguously.

"What the bloody hell does that mean?" Ron asked.

"Who knows..." Yoru murmured. She shifted slightly, one hand starting to smooth out her dress. "You should talk to him," she said suddenly. "He may not forgive you, I know him well enough to know that, but he'll probably give you a chance if you try and get to know him. Put aside Harry and focus on learning about Mihawk."

"They're the same person, though!" Ron protested.

"No they're not," Yoru said sharply. "It's been twenty years, twenty hard, long, lonely years for him. He's changed, as would anyone who has been through what he's been through." She paused, then added, "If you can't accept that, then there is no point in trying to talk to him." She vanished in a swirl of black mist, going off to do whatever she did.

Ron stared after her for a long time before deciding that he wanted to talk to Hermione, if she would talk to him.

_**The library**_

Ron figured that Hermione would be in the library, so that was the first place he looked. He was right, she was at a table with a whole bunch of books strewed about her. Across the table was one of the pirates, Benn, he thought. He had his own stacks of books and was reading through an old yellow text, avidly taking notes as he did so.

Benn glanced up the moment Ron entered the library and his eyes followed him as the Weasley walked over to the pair. After eyeing him for a moment, the pirate turned back to his reading, apparently content to ignore him.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked, a little sharply. At least she was talking to him, though. That was a good sign.

"I, um, just wanted to talk to you," he said quickly.

"About what?" Hermione asked.

"Things," Ron replied.

"Things," Hermione repeated in disbelief. "Fine, whatever. Don't touch my books while I'm gone!" The last was directed at Benn who glanced up.

"Why would I do that?" he asked with an innocent expression. He accidentally knocked one of his books off the table and bent down to retrieve it. His hand brushed against Hermione's robes as he did so. He grabbed the book and leaned back up, placing it back on the table. "Go off and have your talk or whatever," he said. "I won't touch your books."

"You better not," Hermione mumbled as Ron started to head towards the library door. "Hey, where are you going?" she called out, a little too loudly, earning her a glare from Madam Pince.

"To talk," Ron replied.

"I can't leave yet!" Hermione hissed, catching up to him. "I've got books over there that I haven't checked out yet! I can't just leave them."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever," he said, knowing better than to argue with Hermione when she was being so adamant about something, especially when that thing was about books. "Over there, then." He gestured to a narrow aisle between several towering bookshelves.

Hermione sniffed, and then turned and headed towards the bookshelves. Once they were deep enough into the library that nobody out in the reading area would be able to hear them, Hermione stopped and turned to face Ron. "So, what's this about?" she asked, looking at him expectantly.

"Well, um," Ron said, not quite sure how to began. "You know Harry, right?"

Hermione sighed, then said, "Look, if you're going to talk to me about him, then call him by his name at least."

"But his name is Harry!" Ron protested.

"It was," Hermione said. "He's changed, and so has his name."

"Fine, fine," Ron said. "Mihawk, then. It's just... oh, I don't know how to say this! What I mean is that I don't like the way things are between us..." he sighed and shook his head. "Are you understanding any of what I'm trying to say?"

"I think so," Hermione said. "Tell me if I'm right. You don't like the way Mihawk is being cold to you, like you no longer know each other." She sighed. "I think it's perfectly understandable. It's been over twenty years for him, and two for us. We're all very different people than we were. The thing about our families being payed for us befriending him probably didn't help, even if we didn't know about it. I really wish I hadn't told Mom everything about everything now...

"Anyway, if you're asking me for advice, just go up and talk to him. Apologizing for your attitude would be a great first start." Hermione grimaced, as someone started humming somewhere behind her. At least one bookshelf was between them, though, so she had no idea as to who would start humming in a _library, _of all places.

"Shut up," an irate voice growled almost immediately as the humming started. Hermione ignored both the voice and the humming and kept her attention focused on Ron.

"Really, that's all I can tell you," Hermione said. She paused, then added, "Oh, and I hope this goes without saying, but don't treat him like he's the same person as was twenty years ago."

"That didn't really help, but... okay," Ron said. He scratched his head. "Where can I find him?"

Hermione shrugged. "Who knows? He's around. You can probably catch him in his room if he shows up in time. He might still be in the infirmary."

"The infirmary? What'd he do to get in there, get on the wrong side of Snape?"

"The rumor is that he and Shanks were fighting, although since no one actually saw them fight, it's uncertain. Shanks seems to have as many wounds as he does, though," Hermione said. "Now if that's all, I'd like to make sure that Benn didn't hide my books again."

"Actually, tha' wasn' 'im," a familiar voice said from the ceiling. Hermione looked up to see Aldis grinning down at her, somehow clinging to the ceiling like a four-legged spider. "You'd best be gettin' ou' o' the way," he added. "My glue's jus' abou' ta come undone."

Hermione barely got out of the way in time before Aldis fell off, landing almost as silently as a cat. He stood up and winked at her. "Don' worry, I won' tell... although Benn migh'." His creepy smile widened before he walked off down the aisle of bookshelves, raising one hand in the air and cheerfully waving goodbye.

"What did he mean by that?" Hermione muttered. _And what was he doing up there in the first place?_

"I have the feeling we'll find out..." Ron said.

Hermione turned, her robes swishing around her. She heard a dull clunk, as if someone had just slammed two pieces of wood together. "What...?" she asked no one in particular, looking around for the noise.

"There's something in your robes," Ron said. "There's a lump or something down there, at the bottom."

Hermione felt the backs of her legs and soon discovered a Den-Den Mushi. It blinked innocently at her and she sighed before tossing the thing into a bookshelf, as she wasn't sure how to turn it off, and she didn't want to destroy it.

A couple of feet away, in the next aisle, over, golden eyes narrowed contemplatively.

_**A couple hours later**_

Severus Snape should have known something was up the moment that Potter showed up, asking for potion ingredients. Naturally, he had not wanted to give them to Potter, but the wizard/swordsman had said that he'd get a large amount of basilisk venom if Snape gave the ingredients to him.

When Snape had asked _where _this basilisk venom was, Potter had done that annoying little lip-twitch thing and walked off without another word. Now, several hours later, the Potion Master had finally finished the large batch of Skelegrow that he had been brewing for the infirmary. Several neat rows of filled flasks stood upon his shelves; he'd deliver them to Madam Pomfrey tomorrow.

Now Snape was heading up out of the dungeons back towards his quarters. He shivered slightly, eager to be free of the cold dungeons.

The first thing he noticed was the smell, like that of a decaying corpse. There was a sharp tang to it, too, like some kind of citrus. He stopped and sniffed the air; he thought it was coming from ahead of him. He drew his wand and cautiously moved forwards, when he was greeted with the sight of a giant, 40-foot long snake, that was in the process of rapid decaying.

The thing's body was stretched out through the hallway, it's virulent green scaly hide almost unmarked. The basilisk was missing most of its head, with only the lower jaw still attached. Blood was still oozing out of the neck stump and had already formed a dark red pool on the stone floor. It was half-dried and made Snape grateful that there were charms for cleaning this sort of thing up.

After glancing around, he located the rest of the head, or rather what remained of it. It had smacked into one stone wall, leaving a bloody smear upon the pale stone. One eye was a bloody mess and the other was still open, staring vacantly at the ceiling.

Snape was careful to avoid looking at that. He wasn't sure if a basilisk's eye still retained its properties even after the basilisk was dead. He'd never had to deal with basilisk eyes before; they were hardly ever used in potions after all.

Sections of pale bone poked out through the flesh and it looked half-decayed already, despite it not being more than a couple hours old at the latest. He remembered reading somewhere that basilisk corpses decayed really quickly for some reason. The skin, though, the skin could stay around for several centuries before even _starting _to decay.

Snape grimaced at the bloody sight and wondered if this was what Potter had meant when he said that he would soon be getting a large quantity of basilisk venom. It almost certainly was, it stank of him all over it. _Figures that he would go kill a basilisk just to get potions ingredients, _the Potions Master thought.

_**Later that night**_

Poppy Pomfrey yawned, stretching her arms above her head. She looked around at her cluttered office, noting stacks of papers and thick medical books strewn around everywhere. On a small table in the corner, a machine that looked somewhat like a cordless muggle printer whirred into life.

_Oh... _she thought. _It's finally done compiling all those injuries that I had to treat a few days ago... _She liked to keep a set of journals of all the medical injuries she'd treated, including what exactly they were, who the patients were, and what spells or potions she'd used. Sometimes it was easier to look back through that journal for an answer to a puzzling medical problem than it was to look through some thick book written by an obscure Russian and translated into English by an even more obscure wizard.

She'd never tell anyone this, but she also liked to look over the journal simply for nostalgic purposes. She smiled slightly as she remembered how she had almost panicked her first day on the job, when all of the people who had had Potions accidents came in.

The machine let out a loud _beeep! _to show that it was done. Poppy stood up and walked over to it. She carefully slid it to the side, and where it had been was a long piece of parchment. Poppy grabbed it and walked over to her shelf, looking for this months' journal. After locating it, she pulled it down and opened it. There were already quite a few pieces of parchment inside of it, all of them attached to the binding with a sticking charm. It had just been a cover when she'd bought it.

Poppy paused as she was about to put this newest list inside. It _did _seem rather large... The machine started whirring again, making her jump. _That's odd... It shouldn't do that unless it couldn't fit the day's injuries all on one piece of parchment. Maybe it's starting on the next day already? I _did _forget to start it after dealing with Shanks and Mihawk, and I kept putting it off since then, so... maybe some spell kicked in and it's catching up? _

Poppy shrugged, walking over to the printer-like device. She stood by it idly, waiting for it to finish, As she did so, she looked down at the list in her hand. The first line read _Patient: Dracule Mihawk _and then it went on from there for a couple lines describing his medical statistics, from blood pressure to skin tone to height.

From there it cataloged all of the injuries that she had treated. _It didn't seem like that many at the time... _she thought, looking at the list. The parchment was exactly five feet long, as all of the parchments were. It listed injuries in order of severity, and as she hadn't treated him for somewhere around twenty years, she remembered that she'd had it log all his old ones as well.

The parchment was completely _covered _with injuries.

_This is just his! _She realized with a shock. Then she winced, wondering what kind of life he must have had to get beat up this badly. _Broken leg? Numerous times? Perforated lung? Several broken ribs here... ouch, he managed to get his left arm half cut off? That one must have hurt... Oh, here it lists a tattoo... I'd forgotten it did that... hmm, _another _broken leg... what did he _do?! _A couple of flesh wounds... scurvy... how did he get scurvy? Various poisonings here... _

When the machine was done, she found that it had turned out another five foot parchment of Dracule Mihawk's injuries. The next parchment that came out detailed Shanks' medical history, which, if anything, was even _worse _than Mihawk's. It took two and a half parchments to finish detailing his.

Finally, the machine started chugging out the various potions incidents and the like that she had to worry about today. She was still staring at the parchments in her hands. _I wonder what the rest of their medical histories would look like... I didn't worry about it then because their injuries were mostly moderate. The only one that could have been an issue was Fangor's arm, and that was only an issue because he's extremely spell-resistant for some reason. _

As she was filing away the papers, she decided firmly that Albus had no need to know any of this. She had considered it briefly, but... patient-doctor confidentiality aside, there was no point in her telling anyone. Even if he _had _had a rough life, she doubted that could be used to make him stay and as she understood that was about the only thing Albus was interested in these days. That and getting him to kill You-Know-Who... Really, he should have been thinking more on how the Order could stop You-Know-Who, not on how to get someone else to kill him for them...

_**Somewhere far to the north**_

"Uk-thor smash!" the giant grunted, swinging its club down upon the unfortunate wizard.

"No, wait!" the human shouted, doing his best to dodge the giant sentinel's club. "You don't understand! I'm not here to attack!"

"UK-THOR SMASH!" was all the response he got. "STOP BUZZING, LITTLE FLY!" Moments later, all that remained of the poor Death Eater was a crumpled corpse.

The giant leaned down and prodded the corpse with one huge finger. "Smell good," he mumbled. "Take back for food!" He picked up the corpse and put it in a giant sack around his waist, accidentally squishing it a bit more in the process. "Human good..." the giant mumbled contentedly as he went back to watching for invaders.

_**A magical forest**_

The fairy sneered at the wizard in front of her. Her wings vibrated too fast for the human eye to follow, their note a soft whining thrum. "You want the Clans to follow a _human?_ You _must _be joking."

"Um, err, my Lord promises to, um, give, um, give you complete, err, rights, yes, rights, to, err, killing and stuff, err, on the battlefield that is," the pale-faced wizard stammered. The tiny fairy may _look _small, but she had a nasty reputation, even among the humans.

"_Really,_" the fairy said sarcastically. "Which is nothing we don't already have." She raised her voice. "I think I am in the mood for human stew tonight."

The wizard started to draw his wand, but a light layer of dust covered his head before he could and he slumped to the ground, dead the moment he breathed it in.

_**An active volcanic island somewhere off of Britain**_

"Well, maybe," the Fire Wurm mused to itself. It hissed contentedly as it shifted its vast coils on its bed. The snake-like head peered out through the flames, a long tongue flickering out and almost touching the sweating Death Eater on the head. "It is _so _very nice of your Lord to send me an appetizer, after all."

The wizard started sweating even more. "A-appetizer?" he stuttered.

"Silence, fool," the Wurm commanded. One clawed paw shifted, sending a few glowing coals skittering out of its bed to fall into the lava far below. The Wurm lived on a lone spur of rock that jetted out of a boiling lava bed, deep within a volcano. On this rock spur, it kept a fierce fire going.

"Sehehe... I'd tell you to go tell your Lord that I'll join him... but then I'd have to let you go..." the Wurm purred.

The wizard started backwards in alarm and almost slipped off of the edge of the rock.

"Yesss... you shall do nicely," the Wurm murmured. Its tongue flicked out again and lashed around the poor man's arm. The wizard cried out at the acid-like saliva before he was swallowed whole.

Needless to say, the Dark Lord's recruiting campaign was not going very well.


	25. Reconciliation

_**Late, I know. Ah well. Hopefully this current pattern will not continue! Anyway, reviews are as always appreciated, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!**_

_**The next morning**_

Mihawk was not at breakfast, so there was no chance to catch him and talk to him before classes started. Unfortuantely for Ron, he had Defense against the Dark Arts with Snape first. Greasy git. Hermione had rolled his eyes at his proclamation, but at least she was talking to him again. It almost felt like old times, the only one who was missing was Harry.

When he entered the Defense classroom, he found a large sleeping lion behind the podium at the front. The creature opened one eye and looked at him before apparently going back to sleep.

"What's up with the lion?" Dean muttered as he took his seat.

"Who knows?" a voice answered from the back. Dean looked over to see Aldis, smiling his creepy smile and holding a large Den-Den Mushi in his hand. "Don't mind me," he added. "Sorry, I won't interrupt again." The last seemed to be directed to the lion.

The feline opened one eye and glared at Aldis, which only made his creepy smile widen more. Once all of the Gryffindors had entered, the lion clambered to its feet and seemed to sigh. It yawned, once, before glacning at Aldis and sighing again.

The lion's form twisted and shrank into a small man who eyed them all before stepping up to the podium. When he opened his mouth to speak, they all saw that he had sharp, shark-like teeth.

"Now as I'm sure as you've all heard, or maybe you haven't but it doesn't really matter anyway because this is just an introduction to a useless speech to a class of idiots. Now that that's out of the way, let's just say that Snape is indisposed due to an incident involving a hawk and a large snake, and that I have been roped into doing this, and that you almost got Shanks but I was sleeping at the time so I couldn't reply and I am also a-" His voice cut off suddenly as he glared down at the podium.

"Wait what? Benn I'm gonna kill you..." he growled under his breath.

"Actually, tha' was my idea," Aldis volunteered from the back of the room.

"Cameras don't speak," he said. "So shut up and let me teach." He returned his attention to the students. "As you probably know already, I'm Fangor." He hummed thoughtfully to himself and scratched his head. "I appear to have forgotten the lesson plans... or something... so, wing time."

The Gryffindors stared at him with completely blank faces, none of them quite sure how they were supposed to respond to that.

"Um, anyway, from what I've read this class is about fighting. Or something like that anyway. So, err, who can tell me the two main fighting styles?" Fangor asked.

The students glanced at each other, none of them sure what their weird substitute teacher meant. _We didn't cover that, _Ron thought. _Two main fighting styles? _

Hermione raised her hand like she usually did to answer questions, but she did it almost hesitantly, as if she wasn't sure of her answer. When Fangor waved her hand in her general direction, she took that as her cue to go ahead and answer. "Um, physical and magical?" she asked hesitantly.

"Hmm, that's true, I shoulda said that there are three. You got one of them, that is magical, a fighting style where the fighter doesn't do much of anything himself or herself and lets his or her powers do all the work. Rockstar's a good example. What're the other two?"

When no one answered, Fangor sighed and said, "Speed and strength. Speed fighters rely on agility to dodge attacks and their speed to get around their opponent's defense. Aldis over there could be called a speed fighter, although he's also a bit of a "magical" fighter, too."

"'Ey, I make all my poisons," Aldis called out.

"Cameras can't talk," Fangor replied before continuing. "Strength fighters often don't worry about dodging attacks, whether because they're a Logia or because they have really good armor or they're just stupid doesn't matter. They rely on their strength and try to overpower their opponents. Most swordsmen are at least partially strength fighters.

"Of course, in reality, "pure" examples of either of these kinds of fighters are extremely rare; most people used a balanced approach. Now, who can tell me some weaknesses of each kind?"

"That was the weirdest DADA class ever," Ron proclaimed as he walked out of the classroom.

"I wouldn't call it that," Hermione said. "Remember that day when Quirrel just stammered about nothing that was even relevant to what he had been trying to teach?"

"Yeah, but that was _Quirrel,_" Ron said dismissively. "He had You-Know-Who on the back of his head, so a little weird behavior is excused. But that guy is just weird!"

"Yeah, 'e is," Aldis agreed. He had somehow snuck up on them. "Don' worry, it's still bein' recorded, only Yasopp's recordin' it instead o' me."

"Don't _do _that!" Hermione snapped.

"Sorry, it's in my nature," Aldis replied unapologetically. "Be glad tha' all ya've seen is 'is lazy side. 'E tends ta go a little crazy when fightin'. 'Nyway, I gotta hurry up and ge' ta the Red Force 'fore the nex' class starts!"

With that he was gone, peeling off from the pair of young wizards and disappearing into the crowd.

The rest of his classes passed fairly normally, that is to say he slept in History, talked with Dean and Seamus when he was supposed to be doing Transfiguration, nearly got his face eaten by a carnivorous plant, and made up a bunch of nonsense for Divination.

Finally, classes were over and the students poured out of classrooms, heading towards the Great Hall. Hermione rolled her eyes as Ron half stumbled in his haste to get to the place where the food was.

Ron spotted Harry, no, Mihawk, sitting up at the high table as he entered. The man seemed to be trying to hold a conversation with Benn while simultaneously stabbing Shanks' hands as they came near his food. Well, more like stabbing the table in front of his hands.

There was also a large golden lion up at the staff table who was occaisonally eating a few mouthfuls of some kind of raw meat that it had dragged in and set on a plate. Ron recognized it as Fangor's lion form.

As Ron made to sit down at the Gryffindor table, Mihawk looked up and for a moment stared directly at him before he turned back to Benn. Ron shivered slightly from the force of that gaze. It had felt as if his very soul was being laid bare to the man.

He noticed Mihawk slipping out the door to the Entrance Hall about halfway through the meal. He hesitated, casting a longing glance at his plate of mashed potatoes, before he stood up and followed him, atracting the gazes of most of the students. Once he left the hall, the students returned their attention to their meals or, in the case of half the Ravenclaws, their books.

Ron found Mihawk standing and staring out at the lake, or more precisely the Red Force. He cast a nervous glance at Yoru before hesitantly stepping up beside him. Mihawk did not acknowledge him, simply standing and staring out at the black water.

"So, um, hi," Ron said hesitantly. Mihawk still did not respond other than to shift his stance slightly. "Err, so um, I wanted to, err, I mean, that is, um," he said. His ears flared red at how stupid he was sounding. "Sorry," he managed at last.

This time, Mihawk did turn his head to look at him. Although the Shichibukai still didn't say anything, he walked over to a nearby bench and sat down at one end. Apparently he had decided to give Ron a chance. After a moment, Ron sat down at the other end and faced him, feeling rather uncomfortable.

"So, err, I'm sorry for what happened earlier with your sword," he began hesitantly. He paused, expecting Mihawk to say something, but the swordsman just watched him with those impenetrably golden eyes of his.

"And well, I was an idiot for assuming you would be the same," Ron said, grimacing slightly at the admission.

"You were," Mihawk agreed, his tone neutral as if he was speaking to a complete stranger instead of someone he had once considered to be a friend. "As to Yoru, it is fine. Just don't touch her again."

"So, um," Ron said when the silence stretched too long. _This is awkward, _he thought.

Mihawk frowned slightly as if considering something, then he shook his head and sighed softly. His gaze refocused on Ron, although it was slightly warmer than it had been. "Would you help me train?" he asked.

"Help you... train?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Yes, that is what I said," Mihawk agreed. "It does not need to be much, simply fire non-lethal spells at me every night."

"Okay, I guess, this wold be in the Room of Requirement, right?" Ron asked.

"Yes, the instance of it with the ritual will be preserved," Mihawk replied.

_Instance? Ritual? What? _Ron wondered. He knew that if he asked, he wouldn't get an answer.

"That can not be all you wanted to talk with me about," Mihawk stated.

"Well, no," Ron replied hesitantly.

After Ron didn't say anything else for a minute or so, Mihawk raised an eyebrow at him. "Well?" he asked. "If you are worried about Benn, I have already checked."

_Worried about Benn? What does he mean? The Den-Den Mushi that Hermione found in her robes earlier? Was that him who put it there? _Ron wondered.

"I wanted to ask... if I could fight you," Ron admitted.

Mihawk didn't look all that surprised, almost as if he had been expecting it. "Yoru would be a better opponent for you," he said. "If you wish to test your skill against a good opponent, then test it on her. She is strong enough and needs the practice... despite what she might say."

"Are you talking about your sword, or the Guardian Angel?" Ron asked. The Hogwarts Rumor Mill had not yet caught on that they were one and the same.

"Both," Mihawk replied ambiguously. He shifted his head to the side and a silver something splashed into the lake. "I already knew you were there, as you know well," he said.

"Ah, yes, but it's so much more fun to get your attention this way!" Yasopp replied cheerily, walking towards them.

Mihawk sighed. "What." he asked in a flat tone.

"You're always so... I don't know, tense," Yasopp said. "Lighten up a little. Anyway, I was just dropping by to say hi." He headed off around the Black Lake, off towards the side that was closest to where the Red Force was docked. "Bye!" he called jauntily, waving his hand in the air in farewell. He was apparently immune to Mihawk's glare, which by all rights should have set his back on fire.

_**A couple of days later**_

"An', you're good ta go," Aldis said at last, finishing removing the last of Mihawk's bandages.

"Finally," Mihawk muttered. _That took far too long, even with magical healing. _Aldis shook his head in wry amusement when Mihawk headed out of the room without saying anything else.

_I should go find Shanks now, _Aldis thought. _He should be fully 'ealed, o' at leas' mostly 'ealed._

Later that day, a first year came up and told Mihawk that Dumbledore wanted to see him. Mihawk sighed and grabbed a recording Den-DEn Mushi, hiding it in his cloak, before wearily heading off to see what unpleasantness the Headmaster had planned for him.

The swordsman did the same thing he did earlier with the gargoyle, manually cutting the magic threads holding it in place instead of giving it the password. Once it had sprung aside, he made his way up the stairs. Once again, before he could open the door, Dumbledore called out for him to come in.

Dumbledore was not alone, however. Mihawk recognized the other man as Cornelius Fudge, the highly incompetent Minister of Magic. _Still alive? What a pity, _he thought.

"Ah, I am honored to meet you," Fudge said with an oily smile.

Mihawk looked at the offered hand and did not take it, instead asking, "Why have you asked me here?" in the coldest tone he could manage. "I hope it was not to talk with this imbecile."

Fudge's smile faded as he withdrew his hand. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about me, would you?" he asked.

"Who else?" Mihawk responded. _Damn, I think I might even prefer those hated required Shichibukai meetings to talking with this man. _

"Now, now, my boy, don't be rude. Minister Fudge is here so that way he can talk to you about your role in the offense against Voldemort-" Dumbledore began.

"Not interested," Mihawk replied. "Offense? What offense? You do not even know where Voldemort is, so how can there be an offense against him? What he means is stationing me at some town or village so that way when there is an attack I will be able to respond."

There was a silence for a moment after his statement, and then Fudge spoke up, apparently not content to let such a powerful person choose his own path. "No wait-"

"I have no interested in staying here and listening to this person talk," Mihawk interrupted before turning around and striding out of the office, once again effortlessly bypassing the locking charms.

_I think you might have just turned the government against you, _Yoru commented.

_So? I may have been a Shichibukai for the past five or so years, but I still know how to hide from the government. _

_ You do have a point there... _Yoru mused. _And from what I've seen of them so far they seem... highly incompetent. _

_ Hmm... yes... _Mihawk replied. He paused as a flow of students passed him, heading for their next class. After they were gone, he headed on down to the grounds.

As he was passing through a narrow corridor, he noticed a web of magic just up ahead and stopped immediately. _The one problem with this sight is that I don't know what the webs do... _he thought as he cautiously examined the dense tangle.

_Hmm, best to leave it alone, _he thought before turning around and heading the other way. He heard a shrill scream coming from a corridor to his left and started to run. It had sounded like Hermione. On the other hand it _could _be a sound of celebration, especially if the one celebrating was Rockstar. Still worth checking out, though. If it _was _actually someone in danger...

Because of this he _didn't _see the next web until he crashed into it and was transformed into a small kitten. _I'm gonna kill them! _He thought furiously. _Oh shit, is that Shanks? _The kitten quickly dashed away into a side corridor and hid until the red-haired man had passed. With his luck, if he was spotted he would be picked up and squeezed to death.

_But there was a scream! _Mihawk thought. _I have to go find out what that was... _He dashed out into the corridor, racing through the halls as fast as he could until he skidded to a halt in front of none other than Fred and George. The twins were laughing and high-fiving each other.

_"You!" _Mihawk hissed, but it came out more as a loud growl. Fred looked up just as Mihawk landed on his face in cat form and started mauling him.

_Yeah, that's how you do it! _Yoru cheered him on.

"My face! My faaace!" Fred screamed while grabbing the kitten and trying to disengage his claws from his face. Naturally, that didn't work.

George whipped out his wand and cast the counter-spell as Mihawk had figured he would. The kitten leaped gracefully off of Fred's face just before he turned back into a man. After giving the pair the most heated glare he could, he walked off leaving Fred to his incredibly scratched face.

And so several weeks passed like this. Mihawk continued training Zoro during the day, occasionally blindfolding him to specifically work on his Haki. Sometimes he would fight with Shanks, but neither of them came away as wounded as they did that first time. At other times he could be seen scribbling furiously away in a small notebook in the library, or occasionally in the Room of Requirement, trying to weave a complicated spell.

In the evenings, he would attempt to dodge or cut all of the spells that Ron sent at him. As time went by, he got better and better and became more confident that he might actually be able to beat Voldemort next time they fought.

Zoro, when he wasn't training with Mihawk, spent his time sleeping or occasionally drinking. He had found out how to ask the house-elves for sake, and as such could often be found drinking in the evenings.

Unfortunately for all of the inhabitants of the castle, Shanks figured out how to get sake as well and was now drunk most of the time. Sometimes Aldis would inject him with something to get him sober again, but then Shanks would just drink more. Really, he should have known by now that a non-drunk Shanks is not a normal Shanks. Heck, it might even be _bad _for Shanks' health not to be drunk all the time.

Perona continued to pass through walls at random and freak students out. She found it funny how scared they got, especially since they had ghosts of their own. Perhaps it was because she wasn't all silverly like they were? In any case, she was actually enjoying herself, a feat which she would have thought impossible in such a gloomy place.

Somehow, over the course of the weeks, Bambor mysteriously disappeared. No one seemed to notice that he was gone, though, figuring he was just some place else in the castle. It was rather strange, really, that he would just disappear like that. When he didn't show up at mealtimes, everyone just assumed he'd found out about the house-elves and was eating down there, or something like that anyway. It's possible that some of them didn't even notice his absence.

Fred and George continued pranking everyone (except Mihawk, neither of them wanted to mess with _him _again). Finally, though, they had to leave on some Order assignment, and as such _Shanks _took up the duty of pranking everyone. So Mihawk was far more careful, making sure to put up warding spells around everything. He really did _hate _being pranked, and he _certainly _didn't feel any satisfaction from pranking the Weasley twins back.

As for the rest of the pirates, Fangor happily lounged around the castle in his lion form, freaking out more than a few students that came upon him unawares. Aldis had a habit of popping up from dark corners and winking while holding a syringe full of some weirdly-colored liquid (that half the time was harmless). Benn could often be seen in the library, researching parallel universes. He claimed that he was only researching them because he was interested in them.

Rockstar still cooked a lot (as everyone agreed that his food was better than the house-elves', although nobody told _them _that), and Lucky in particular liked it. Once Tiern discovered the supply of sake, he joined his captain in being drunk most of the time.

Crane and Lissan continued fighting, once or twice completely wrecking a large section of Hogwarts. When asked by Dumbledore to stop, they merely told him to "get out of the way" and continued fighting. When Dumbledore went to their crew, Tiern just said, "I couldn't care less where they fight, just as long as it's not on the ship." The rest of their crew seemed to echo that sentiment, with Benn saying that there was no point in trying to stop them and Fangor adding that they could do what they liked as long as no one disturbed his sleep.

Yasopp went into the Forbidden Forest a lot, and he also explored the heights of Hogwarts. When asked why he was doing this, he replied that he was scouting out good sniping spots when the Death Eaters came. As he told this to anyone he asked, the rumor quickly spread around the school that the Death Eaters could attack at any time.

Towards the end of this period, Mihawk felt his carefully-maintained mask slipping even more in front of Zoro. He wanted to just give it up, yet at the same time he didn't think that he would know how to live without it. It had simply been so long since he trusted someone enough to show them who he truly was. Oh, Shanks and the Red Hair pirates caught glimpses of it, but he never dropped it fully, even around them.

But something about Zoro made him instinctual want to trust the young man. When he asked Yoru for help, she merely laughed and said, "I don't really know how you humans do it, but if you were a demon I would say that you've found your Mate. In human myths, they say that your Mate is the one who is perfect for you, but among demons they're just the ones who you are destined to live out your life with. Mated pairs don't necessarily breed, but they are always connected somehow."

The thought of that made Mihawk rather uncomfortable, especially as the younger man's dream was to defeat him and that might well involve his death. Still, though, he couldn't help wondering if maybe he should approach Zoro and... do what? Ask him out? That would only sound stupid...

So Mihawk did nothing, not really, merely relaxing around Zoro a little more. Strange, he would have thought that it would be against his instincts to do so, but it was really more than that. He had lived too long alone, never having anyone to depend on, not really, so he had gotten into the habit of never showing his true self to the world... always hiding his weaknesses. If he didn't, he would only get hurt. He had learned _that _the hard way. Changing that now... would be quite difficult, to say the least.

He thought that Zoro noticed his attempts to stop hiding that self a bit... but if he had, he certainly hadn't said anything, and the Shichibukai somehow found it unlikely that the other swordsman had. _He can be as dense as Shanks, _Mihawk thought with a sigh one night. _I suppose he wouldn't be him if he wasn't, though. _


	26. Of Werewolves and Men

_**The next evening**_

"Is there a _reason _you asked me to come out here?" Mihawk asked, raising an eyebrow at his student.

"Well, um, yes," Zoro began hesitantly. The two were sitting on one of the benches by the side of the Black Lake. It was dusk, almost full night and, as they were in England, the clouds almost completely obscured the dark sky.

"Then what is it?" Mihawk asked. "Not that I really mind, but there are those tracking spells I've been working on to find Voldemort."

_Oh screw this, I was always bad with words, _Zoro thought. He leaned forwards. The Shichibukai didn't pull away, just looked at him curiously. Then Zoro kissed him abruptly, basically forcing himself to do it before he completely lost his nerve.

After he pulled back, all he could see was shock in Mihawk's golden eyes. "Did you just... kiss me?" the Shichibukai murmured. For once, Zoro could hear surprise in his tone.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," Zoro muttered. He should have known that there was no way the Shichibukai would return the feelings that he had only just admitted to himself were real.

"Shut up," Mihawk replied, deciding to go with his instincts. He leaned forwards and kissed Zoro back, trying to put all of his feelings into it.

"Then you..." Zoro began hesitantly after they both stopped for air.

"No, yes, maybe, I don't know," Mihawk said, deciding to be completely honest about his feelings instead of hiding them for once. "But I'm willing to give it a chance." _Yoru was right as always._

Zoro smiled hesitantly and leaned his head against Mihawk's shoulder. As the Shichibukai didn't pull away, Zoro didn't either.

They stayed like that for a long time.

_**The next morning **_

Mihawk woke up to find Zoro's head on his shoulder. It took him a moment to recall why he had fallen asleep on a bench in the middle of (insert month here). When he did, his lips curved upward slightly and he looked down at the sleeping Zoro.

_He looks so... peaceful, _he thought. Zoro mumbled something in his sleep and squirmed a bit close to Mihawk. The Shichibukai sighed, wishing he could stay here like this forever.

But sadly it was not to be. Mihawk sighed as he gently shook Zoro awake. The younger swordsman woke up easily for once and looked around, confused for a moment before remembering what he had done last night. Mihawk watched him in amusement as he sprang backwards, a hint of a blush gracing his cheeks.

"Come on," Mihawk told him, standing up and grabbing Yoru from where she had fallen on the ground. "Training."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Zoro muttered, grabbing his three swords before hurrying after the Shichibukai who was already halfway to the Forbidden Forest.

An hour later, they returned to the Great Hall for breakfast. "Not again!" Mihawk growled, quickly spitting out the food he had just been eating. _Damn, too late, _he thought as he changed into a puppy, of all things. A _puppy!_

The Mihawk-puppy growled and leaped from the staff table, landing somewhat clumsily, and started racing towards the Gryffindor table. The Hall watched on as he disappeared under the table. A moment later, Ron turned and fled from the table with a vengeful puppy chasing after him.

"Dahahaha! Dahahaha! That's great!" Shanks cackled, unable to stop laughing.

"Maybe you should call him Puppy now," Yasopp suggested.

Shanks snickered. "Naw, Hawky fits him better," he said. "I didn't think that _Ron _would prank him, though. He didn't really seem the type. Oh, whatever."

_**Mihawk**_

Mihawk strode off from a _very _clawed up Ron, feeling rather satisfied. Perhaps he'd learned his lesson and wouldn't turn him into another animal? Probably not, but one could hope.

As he was heading out of the castle in the rough direction of Benn, he saw a familiar face. "Remus..." he muttered. He and Dumbledore were talking about something or another.

"-badly," he heard Remus say as he got closer. "They won't listen. They're sick of human prejudice against them and every time the Ministry has promised them increased rights, they never deliver."

"It has been... some time since I have seen you last," Mihawk said, interrupting the conversation.

"Cub! Dumbledore told me that you'd been summoned back. How are you? Why are you so old?" Remus asked.

"I believe the normal process is called aging," Mihawk replied. "As to how I am... I could be better. Being pulled away from one's home for the past twenty years and suddenly being expected to kill a psychomaniac for no other reason than a prophecy _is _quite the annoyance."

"Ah, yes, this wasn't my idea," Remus began hastily.

"Yes, I am quite sure that it was not now," Mihawk said. _No, that plan was all Dumbledore's. _

"Aww, reuniting with an old friend? _So _cute!" a voice squealed from behind him.

Mihawk sighed. "Kori, go bother someone else."

"But there is no one else to bother..." Kori whined. "No one else _interesting, _anyway." She winked at him.

"Go. Away."

"Harry, who is this?" Remus interjected.

"My name is Mihawk," Mihawk replied, "And this is Kori, Yoru's sister and Queen of the Snow Faction."

"Eh? How did you know that last part? I'm pretty sure I never told you..." Kori said.

"Yoru told me," Mihawk replied.

"Yoru? Who is that?" Remus asked.

"Hawky's sword!" Shanks replied cheerfully, running up to the trio. "Oi, wanna duel again?"

"Red Hair-" he began, but stopped, sighing. "Very well, but please attempt not to put me out of commission for another week," Mihawk said.

Shanks laughed. "Sorry, sorry," he said. "But hey, you did the same thing to me, and I haven't done that since the first time we dueled!"

"In retribution," Mihawk said. He glanced at Remus one last time before saying, "I would talk to you again later." After saying that, the pair walked back to Hogwarts together.

Remus watched them go, frowning to himself. His cub was so different than he used to be... he didn't even know why Harry had left this world in the first place! He had a feeling it had something to do with how Fawkes disappeared, but he didn't know what.

After finishing talking with Dumbledore, he went off to the dungeons to get more Wolfsbane. The full moon was in a couple of days and he'd run out of his own personal stock.

When he arrived at Snape's office, he found the man holding a long curved fang over a beaker and his wand was pointing at the fang with his other hand. Drops of green venom came slowly out of the fang.

Leaned against the wall was the partial skull of what looked like a giant snake. Snape glanced up when Remus came in. "Oh, it's _you,_" he said. "What do you want?"

"Wolfsbane," Remus replied.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Do you know how long that takes to make? I don't have any on hand. Go buy it or something." Then he turned back to his work, evidently content with completely ignoring Remus.

The werewolf sighed before deciding to head up to the Owlery to send off an owl. When he entered the room he found a man with spiky red hair just sitting and listening to the owls with his eyes closed. At least that's what it looked like. Remus wondered if he was one of the pirates that Dumbledore had told him about.

Remus looked at the barn owl heading off towards Diagon Alley and sighed. He hoped that the wolfsbane would come in time. If it didn't... no, he didn't even want to think about what would happen if it didn't.

"Who are you?" the man asked, opening his eyes.

Remus jumped, he'd forgotten that the other was there. "Ah, Remus Lupin. What's your name?"

"Rockstar, semi-sniper of the Red Hair Pirates," the man replied. "I'm not a true sniper, but my powers can be used that way. What are you doing here?"

"I'm sending off an owl," Remus said, confused.

"No, not the Owlery, I'm asking what you're doing at the school."

"What do you mean?"

"You only recently arrived," Rockstar said calmly. "You're an adult wizard and not one of the teachers. You were talking with Dumbledore earlier and Hawky seems to know you. Why are you here?"

"I was... delivering a report to Dumbledore," Remus said.

"I see," Rockstar muttered. His hand darted through the air so fast that Remus barely saw it, and snatched up what looked like a tiny blue and pink snail in his hand. One finger tapped the side of the snail's shell and its eyestalks drooped. "Sorry for the interrogation, Benn insisted," he said. Then he closed his eyes and apparently went back to listening.

Remus was about to leave the Owlery when the castle shuddered. He reached out and grabbed a wall for support. "Are we being attacked?" he muttered.

"It's probably just Hawky and Captain," Rockstar supplied. "The wards can't quite handle those two fighting, so it takes a minute for them to adjust." The castle shook again, less violently this time. A few moments later, a very small tremor ran through the stone and then it was still.

Remus sighed, shaking his head. "Whatever," he said, heading on out of the Owlery and down to the library. Madam Pince glanced at him suspiciously as he entered, but then she did that at everyone.

While looking through the shelves for something interesting to read, he saw another one of the pirates frowning and looking down at a book.

"Hmm, this'll do," the man said before heading over to the reading area. Remus watched him go with a shrug before pulling out a thick journal written by one of the previous Headmasters about the creatures living in the Forbidden Forest.

As he sat down to read, another person entered the library and grabbed the man by the shoulders and started shaking him back and forth. "Why was _this _in the bathroom!" he shouted, waving something tan-colored around.

"What?" the man asked, finally managing to push the other off of him. "That wasn't me! I'm being framed!"

"And who _else _hides Den-Den Mushi around the ship?"

"Well, okay, so the evidence doesn't look so good. Still, though, that wasn't me! I don't use tan ones, not unless I run out of all the others! And I have plenty of blue and green ones left, even after setting up a network around Hogwarts!"

"Hmm... Fine," the other said.

"If you are going to fight, don't do it in here!" Madam Pince commanded.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the newcomer mumbled before walking out of the room. The first man sighed before returning to his reading.

Remus shook his head before settling down to read. There really were a _lot _of creatures in the Forbidden Forest, it was just that most stayed far away from the castle so that they were hardly ever spotted.

He finally stopped reading once he noticed that it was getting dark outside. A quick Tempus revealed it was time for dinner. He bookmarked his place and walked up to Madam Pince's desk to check it out. A glance at the table behind him revealed that the pirate was still working on something or other. As Remus was passing by it on his way to the exit, he saw the title of the book he was currently reading. _The Gap Between Universes. _There was no author listed and it looked quite old.

Remus shrugged and headed on out of the library. Upon entering the Great Hall, he found that dinner had already started. He quickly hurried to his place at the staff table, noting that both Harry and the other guy, the one he'd called Red Hair had quite a few bandages wrapped around their persons.

Remus sat in the empty spot to Harry's right. "That was a bad idea," Harry commented as Remus started to serve himself.

"What? Why?" Remus asked in confusion.

"Because you are adjacent to Lucky," Harry replied. Quick as lightning, his right hand unsheathed a cross-shaped dagger from his neck and slammed it down into the table, point first, right in front of Red Hair's hand. The 40-something year old man pouted before pulling his hand back.

"What? Why would that be a bad thing?" Remus asked in confusion, glancing to his right to see a somewhat fat man eating a chunk of meat.

"Your food is already gone," Harry stated flatly before slamming his dagger down in front of Red Hair's hand again.

"Eh?" Remus said in confusion, glancing down at his plate. It was, indeed, quite empty.

Harry ducked and something sped over his head, aimed at the Gryffindor table. Moments later, Remus saw Ron take a drink of pumpkin juice. He yelped and looked like he was in pain. Down the table, he saw a long-nosed man winking at Harry. Harry simply responded with a glare.

"That could have hit me, as you well know, Yasopp," he stated.

"But it didn't!" the man, Yasopp, responded cheerfully.

"I see that there is no point in continuing this conversation with you," Harry stated. His left hand twitched slightly and he sighed softly before saying, "Red Hair, if you are going to _gossip _about me, you could at least be subtle about it."

"What? Me?" Red Hair asked, turning to look at Harry, his face the picture of innocence. "I wasn't!"

"It is quite obvious that you were," Harry said, his left hand starting to twitch again. "Benn," he added, "Next time I find a Den-Den Mushi, I am going to destroy it."

"What? You wouldn't!" a girl dressed like a princess yelled, floating through the wall behind Mihawk. "How could you kill one of those? They're so cute!"

"Fine, fine," Benn muttered. "I suppose I'll just have to hide them better..."

Harry seemed to sigh and give up on the conversation. He closed his eyes and seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before he opened them again and sighed. "My apologies, I must be going," he said, before getting up and heading for the door out to the Hogwarts grounds. Remus watched him go with no small amount of confusion.

"Who're you?" the pink-haired girl asked, tipping her head to the side. She absently reaised one hand and a white... thing shot out of it and towards the doors to the outside.

"What was that?" Remus asked instead of answering the question.

"Just a Hollow," the girl answered. Another one of the white ghost-like things came of the wall behind her and started circling around her head. "Not again..." the girl muttered. She pointed firmly at the wall and the white creature slunk off and went away through it again.

"What's your name?" Remus asked. "I'm Remus Lupin."

"Perona," the girl replied. She yawned daintily then said, "I'm off to get out of his horribly cheerful place." She vanished back through the wall, leaving Remus feeling rather confused.

_**Mihawk**_

_So, not only did those pesky cats tell the centaurs about the "Chosen", but now those centaurs have sent an emissary in the middle of dinner and are refusing to speak to anyone but the "Chosen"? Great... just great. I wonder how long it will take Dumbledore to notice the herd of centaurs on the school grounds? _Mihawk wondered. He shook his head, sighing as he headed down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

There was not, in fact, a herd of centaurs. There were only three, one that he dimly recognized as Firenze and two others. Yoru was waiting by them, grinning impishly.

"I hear that you are emissaries," Mihawk said.

"Indeed we are," the oldest one of the lot said, stepping forwards. "Are you the Chosen?"

"If by Chosen, you mean the one who has been assigned the task of defeating Voldemort, then yes I am." Mihawk noticed that Yoru had gone back to her sword form.

"Ah, good," the leader said. "We have come to extend our support in case of an attack on Hogwarts."

"I see," Mihawk responded neutrally. "Then I thank you."

"We also wish to inform you that we will tolerate no more of your kind bumbling about in our territory," the oldest added.

"I see. I will tell them," Mihawk said.

"Good. That is all." The trio of centaurs turned and galloped back into the forest.


End file.
